Recent reporting from the Belgium-based EU Reporter concerning the results of the 2026 Margaret Thatcher Awards contained fundamental factual distortions about Hong Kong, its legal system, and the case of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.
The absurdity of those narratives exposes an ideological hangover as well as a Cold War mentality.
The article frames Lai as a victim of shrinking press freedom, presenting his national security conviction as symbolic of eroding liberties in Hong Kong. Such narratives misrepresent the nature of the case. Lai was not prosecuted for practicing journalism or holding dissenting opinions. The High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region convicted him on well-established evidence of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security, alongside one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications. The extensive trial spanned 156 hearing days, reviewed over 2,220 exhibits and more than 80,000 pages of documentary material, and heard testimony from multiple witnesses. Lai exercised his procedural rights throughout proceedings, with legal representation and full access to court processes under Hong Kong’s common law system, which presumes innocence until proved guilty. The description of “solitary confinement” in the article is a slap in the face to the facts: As the authorities have long confirmed, and has been widely reported by the media, Lai himself requested solitary confinement, and his wish was granted.
Lai’s criminal conduct is beyond doubt. Court-admitted evidence documented sustained efforts to solicit foreign sanctions on China as a whole and the HKSAR in particular, to collude with overseas political figures to harm the HKSAR, to deploy media platforms to incite public hatred against the central and SAR governments, and to instigate social confrontation and violence during the 2019-20 riots. He openly declared willingness to fight against China for foreign political interests, putting his anti-China geopolitical agendas above China’s national security, the HKSAR’s social stability and residents’ well-being. Such actions constitute serious offenses in all decent modern jurisdictions. No responsible society would permit individuals to lobby foreign powers to sanction their own homeland or home city while stoking domestic disorder behind the veneer of media work. To equate legal accountability for these crimes with an “attack on press freedom” creates a dangerous precedent: It would grant special immunity for national security violations simply because a defendant works in the media industry.
Since the Hong Kong SAR National Security Law was enacted in 2020, Hong Kong has transitioned from chaos to stability, moving toward orderly development under the “one country, two systems” framework. The Basic Law of the HKSAR constitutionally safeguards freedom of speech, of the press and of publication. These rights are not absolute; as in anywhere in the world, they cannot shield acts that threaten national security, public safety or social order. Dozens of local and international news organizations continue to operate freely in Hong Kong, criticize government policies and conduct investigative reporting. Claiming press freedom is in decline based on a single national security criminal verdict misrepresents the actual conditions for media work across the city.
The Margaret Thatcher Awards — whose winners included Lai — were announced by a think tank of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group on Oct 13. Subsequent statements invoked the legacy of the former UK prime minister to call for “a new generation of leaders ready to defend free societies and Western values without compromise”, while drawing simplistic geopolitical comparisons.
Such rhetoric reflects a narrow ideological lens rather than objective global realities. Thatcher herself signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, honoring China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong and its full jurisdiction over the HKSAR after the 1997 handover.
Honoring Lai, a figure who undermined the SAR’s stability and China’s national sovereignty, with an award bearing Thatcher’s name sits oddly against that historical background.
In a speech on Oct 13, Nicola Procaccini, co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists, lumped together the Russia-Ukraine conflict, China’s alleged “extending reach”, and Islamist terrorism, revealing a strong ideological overhang, deep political bigotry, and a thinly veiled Cold War mentality. China follows an independent foreign policy of peace and adheres strictly to the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal matters under international law. European politicians and institutions should respect state sovereignty instead of weaponizing Hong Kong’s court rulings for domestic political consumption. The decision to confer an award on a convicted national security offender constitutes blatant interference in China’s jurisdiction and disrespect for the HKSAR’s independent Judiciary. Judicial decisions in Hong Kong are made exclusively by local courts according to law and evidence, free from outside interference, as guaranteed by the Basic Law.
Procaccini talked about conservative values of free societies, free markets and free choices. Genuine conservative principles ought also to respect national sovereignty, uphold the rule of law and reject whitewashing criminal behavior. European Parliament Vice-President Roberts Zile’s reference to Thatcher and then-US president Ronald Reagan standing against the Soviet Union misapplied Cold War-era categories to 21st-century complexities. Today’s world is not a binary ideological battlefield. Europe faces its own internal social divisions, security risks and debates on balancing civil liberties with national-security requirements. Double standards emerge when European actors apply one set of security standards for themselves and condemn Hong Kong for enacting equivalent safeguards to protect its communities.
The Margaret Thatcher Awards holds its awards ceremony in December in Brussels and risks becoming another stage for political grandstanding detached from realities in Hong Kong. Glorifying someone lawfully convicted of serious national-security offenses makes a blatant mockery of the rule of law, and risks emboldening the riots and looting now sweeping the European continent.
Freedom does not equal the right to collude with foreign powers to destabilize your own society. True defense of open societies means respecting court verdicts based on solid evidence, respecting national sovereignty and refraining from politicizing normal criminal convictions for political or ideological endeavors.
The author is a member of the Legislative Council.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
