cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50623268

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A day after being sentenced to 20 years in prison under Hong Kong’s national security law, the former newspaper magnate Jimmy Lai faces a painful dilemma [...] diplomats believe that Beijing is open to the possibility of releasing Lai early to avoid making him a political martyr if he were to die in prison.

[...]

China would almost certainly want a guarantee that Lai would not use liberty in Britain as a platform for criticism of the Hong Kong and Beijing authorities. How they could be reassured of this is not clear. But the key question is what Lai himself wants and whether he would really exchange freedom to speak out for freedom from prison.

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