00:00It's hard to tell through the tinted black glass,
00:05but this police bus is likely carrying Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai
00:09to what's essentially a life sentence.
00:14Lai is one of Hong Kong's sharpest critics of China,
00:17and he used his now shuttered paper, the Apple Daily,
00:20to give voice to these views.
00:22Over five years after his arrest,
00:24he's been convicted of seditious publishing
00:26and conspiracy to collude with foreign powers.
00:29The 78-year-old's been sentenced to two decades in prison,
00:32the most severe punishment yet
00:34under Hong Kong's controversial national security law,
00:37despite health problems including diabetes and high blood pressure.
00:41The pressure to free Lai is already on, though,
00:44starting with Lai's family.
00:46Lai is a British citizen,
00:48and his son wants him released to live out his days in the UK.
00:52The least Hong Kong and China can do
00:54is to send a 78-year-old man who's in ill health
00:58on a plane and send them back here.
01:00We're not asking the world.
01:01This isn't a hard thing for them to do.
01:04It's a very easy thing for them to do,
01:05and it's not a big thing for them to do.
01:07Governments are stepping in, too.
01:09U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for Lai's release,
01:13and with U.S. President Trump set to visit Beijing in April,
01:16Lai's fate may be on the agenda.
01:19And though UK PM Keir Starmer's recent visit to Beijing
01:23doesn't seem to have swayed China,
01:25the UK's Foreign Secretary promised,
01:27quote, rapid engagement, now the sentence is passed.
01:31It's not just the West.
01:33Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary has voiced,
01:36quote, serious concern about Lai's case.
01:39Taiwan has also been swift in its condemnation.
01:42And the United Nations wants the sentence quashed, too.
01:58Our office has reviewed the verdict against Jimmy Lai
02:01and is concerned that it criminalizes the exercise
02:05of freedom of association and expression,
02:08including media freedoms,
02:10rights which are protected under international human rights law.
02:15From Beijing, the view is that Lai is a Chinese citizen
02:18who endangered China's national security.
02:21But rights groups see it as a stark ending,
02:24with the Committee to Protect journalists calling it, quote,
02:27the final nail in the coffin for press freedom in Hong Kong.
02:31Lai's family lawyer sums up the harshness of the ruling
02:34that is causing such a stir outside of China.
02:37He was convicted of crimes that amount to no more
02:39than campaigning peacefully through his media properties,
02:44supporting gentle and incremental approach
02:48to further democratization of Hong Kong.
02:51Nothing more, no violence, no threat of violence,
02:56no treachery.
02:58He was just a man standing up for the values
03:01of the old Hong Kong in which he grew up.
03:04Lai's sentence begins.
03:06But his case is far from over,
03:08as calls by powerful people to let him go free build.
03:12Fu Hua Hong and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
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