Money can’t buy everything for Jimmy Lai’s filial son

Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government

Sebastien Lai is the dutiful son of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who is currently facing subversion and sedition charges in Hong Kong’s high court. Even while prosecution and defense lawyers prepare for their closing arguments, Sebastien plans to plea to the G7 world leaders to pressure the Hong Kong government into releasing his father.

But this is not possible during an ongoing trial, which so far has exceeded140 days of gathering evidence from prosecution witnesses and including 52 days of defense evidence from Lai himself.
Sebastien’s international legal team headed by Caoilfhionn Gallagher, KC, of Doughty Street Chambers in London, are fully aware of this, but still continue milking Sebastien for every cent he has by encouraging him to continue his one-man campaign. For Gallagher and her team, this is easy money by just arranging meetings with politicians who are always looking for any campaign to champion, senior government officials and like-minded organizations as well as newspaper editorial board meetings and Fox news. And with each meeting comes a press conference with great sound bites to appease the press and their coverage.

His campaign has no legal base, and Gallagher knowns that. While pleading that he’s not guilty, they have not offered any evidence to prove Lai senior’s innocence. Gallagher turned on a drama performance to gander support by claiming Lai was facing a death sentence in Hong Kong.
Canada now appears to be the focus for the Lai family which has substantial property developments in the southern Ontario region, including 12 hotels and 20 restaurants and spas. Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Tony Baldinelli said the properties were a significant driver of local tourism in Niagara on the Lake.

Reuters reported that before his arrest, Jimmy Lai was worth US$1.2 billion, so the family has money to burn seeking his release from custody. For Sebastien Lai, money is never a problem to pay the exorbitant legal fees plus expenses (flying around the world, first class hotel stays, transportation etc.) for the Gallagher team, the Canadian team and the Hong Kong team of barristers and lawyers.

With the G7 summit looming for Kananaskis, Alberta during the weekend, team Sebastien has ramped up its campaign to target Canadian politicians and G7 leaders. Social media sites, such as X, have been flooded with pleas for Lai senior’s release, even calling for his honorary citizenship to Canada.

The granting of honorary Canadian citizenship would put him on par with South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai and Tibet’s Dalai Lama who have received the award with four others.

The eight members of the G7 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US and the EU. China has not been invited. Eight other countries, including Australia, Brazil and India, have been invited as guests.

Hong Kong-born member of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Canada, Jenny Kwan, said at a press conference on June 10 that said she has asked Canada’s immigration minister Lena Diab if she would grant Jimmy Lai honorary citizenship, but the answer was non-committal to “it’s a private matter.”

“Jimmy Lai has been a tireless advocate for human rights and democratic values. By granting him Canadian citizenship, our country would honour his extraordinary bravery and pursuit of justice,” said Lai’s lead Canadian counsel, Irwin Cotler of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (WCHR).

The WCHR organised a one-day event with a press conference. Canada’s prestigious Globe and Mail newspaper hosted an editorial board meeting with Sebastien and Gallagher to be followed by a Q&A public event. And other human rights organizations have also planned events during the week of the G7 Summit.

Again, barristers of law are misreading the law. They have totally ignored the evidence presented in the 146 days of Lai’s trial, or they have just not read it. Jimmy Lai’s evidence in his defence lasted for 52 days. The three judges hearing the case have adjourned the trial to August 14 for the prosecution and defence teams to present their closing arguments. This should take about eight days before the judges retire to assess their judgment.

At the end of the day the judges will pronounce their verdict, Sebastien will come out smelling like roses as the filial son and heir to the Lai legacy and Gallagher will rest on her laurels and her bank account, already worth about US$500,000, according to People AI, before she took on the Lai case.

Mark Pinkstone

** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **

Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government

Once pundits described the wealth of Hong Kong as its streets being paved with gold. Today, it’s still not far from that. Corporations seeking the end of the rainbow for that pot of gold are now stopping at Hong Kong for their financial needs.

Now Hong Kong is not only the financial hub in Asia, but also in the world.

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) during the past week have pushed Hong Kong to the forefront, with leading accountancy firms KPMG China and Deloitte both ranking Hong Kong first globally ahead of the NASDAQ, New York, Shanghai Stock exchanges and the National Stock Exchange of India (which topped the list last year).

Hong Kong is expected to list 80 new IPOs this year raising about HK$200 billion (US$25.5 billion). Last year it completed only 21 IPOs raising HK$5.8 billion (US$ 740 million).

An elated Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po told a packed financial audience in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday that the core of Hong Kong’s success was our values: - openness, diversity, international character and global connectivity. Under the ‘one country, two systems’ governing framework, Hong Kong preserves its free port status, along with the free flow of capital, information, goods and talent.

And while Chan was wooing potential investors in Seoul, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange had its busiest day of the year when five mainland companies made their trading debuts simultaneously. The five debutants raised HK$10.4 billion (US$11.32 billion) from their IPOs, adding to several jumbo-sized deals made already this year.

Winner of the day was Shanghai-listed semiconductor chip designer Fortior Technology which raised HK$2.26 billion (US$287 million) in its offering.

Wednesday was also the fifth trading session of 2025 where multiple companies went public on the same day in Hong Kong.

Deloitte noted that Hong Kong would see around HK$102.1 billion(US$13billion) raised from 40 IPOs between January and June, which represents a 33 percent increase year on year in terms of number of deals and six to seven times more in terms of size.

The strong performance was boosted by four mega mainland listings from Shanghai and Shenzhen, including that of battery giant CATL, which raised HK$41 billion in capital in Hong Kong, as well as bubble tea chain Mixue that raised HK$34.5 billion.

But Hong Kong doesn’t stop at just raising money, it also helps companies physically set-up shop here to tap mainland and regional markets.

Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), a government agency designed to assist new startups, has assisted more than 1,300 overseas and mainland companies to set up or expand their business in Hong Kong from January 2023 to the first six months of 2025, bringing in foreign direct investment of more than HK$168 billion (US$21.4billion). These startups created more than 19,000 jobs within the first year of operation or expansion, contributing to the local job market and reaffirming Hong Kong's position as a leading business hub in Asia.

The top five sectors boosting their presence in Hong Kong are financial services and fintech, innovation and technology, family offices, tourism and hospitality and business and professional services.
Director General of InvestHK, Ms Alpha Lau said the agency also assists mainland companies to go global via Hong Kong and further promote Hong Kong's advantages as a regional trade and high-end logistics hub. “We will continue to leverage Hong Kong's role as a two-way springboard for mainland and overseas companies to connect between our country and the rest of the world under the 'one country, two systems' principle," she said.

The story of Hong Kong is one of tremendous efficiency with virtually unlimited resources. When wrapping up his talk in Seoul, Chan left his audience with these priceless gems: Hong Kong has no dividend tax, no capital gains tax, a low profits tax at only 16.5 per cent, trading in multiple currencies, including HKD, USD and RMB, and trading hours aligned with the Asian time zone. What could be a better place to do business?