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. **

Hong Kong is facing a dilemma as more locals are spending their dollars outside of the city than what the visitors are bringing in.

Relaxed visa/permit restrictions for locals and foreign residents alike is making it easier for travel to the mainland while inbound traffic crossing the boundary is low budget and spending less on accommodation and food.

Tourism is an important pillar for Hong Kong’s economy. In pre-COVID times, tourism accounted for about four per cent of the territory’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provided for about six per cent of total employment.

In Hong Kong’s heydays, the city saw about 65 million tourists in 2018, of which 51 million came from the mainland. It was boom time for retailers and restaurants. Long queues of mainland shoppers would line the streets along Canton Road and elsewhere waiting to buy luxury items from Gucci, Prada, Tiffany’s and other high-end stores which set up shop in Hong Kong to tap this lucrative market.

Today many restaurants and retail outlets are closing down, especially in the boundary towns of Sheung Shui and Yuen Long. The market is no longer there, and high rental costs make it almost impossible to survive.

During the 2025/2026 festive season, Hong Kong saw a 25.6 per cent rise in inbound trips on New Year’s Day 2026 (664,338 trips), but this was still countered by a massive 515,954 outbound exits on the same day.

Winston Yeung, chair of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants & Related Trades, told local media that business was sluggish during the Christmas holiday, with some restaurant owners calling it “the slowest business at Christmas over the past 10 years.”

Unfortunately, the local market is not propping up the tourism outlets. Instead, the locals are traveling in large numbers to Shenzhen and Macau and other parts of China for day trips or extended holidays, thereby providing a leakage in the local economy.

While Hong Kong received more than an estimated 45 million visitors last year, more than about 100 million departures were recorded by the Immigration Department of locals leaving Hong Kong by plane, train or bus mainly to the mainland (75 per cent), and to other major Asian destinations.

Hong Kong has 320 hotels offering 92,907 rooms, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Despite mainlanders’ choice of more budget accommodation, occupancy rates for the hotel industry remained high at 88 per cent last year. The major hotels are not affected by the change in mainlanders’ preferences as they rely more on the affluent international tourist, visiting Hong Kong for business, conventions or holidays.

Property developer, Caldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) says Hong Kong’s hospitality market currently presents various investment-ready assets including rare investment opportunities for upper upscale and luxury hotels. These high-end properties are particularly attractive due to their resilience, as they are less reliant on Chinese group travelers and enjoy sustained spending power among affluent individual travelers and international visitors. This makes them attractive for investors seeking stable returns in a dynamic market.

To encourage locals to spend more at home and at the same time provide a bonus for tourists, Hong Kong has organised a series of mega events, many held in the new sports stadium on the site of the old Kai Tak airport in Kowloon. Traditional events in 2026 will include the French May Arts festival in March, Hong Kong Book Fair in July, Hong Kong performing Arts Expo in October, the World Snooker Grand Prix in February, and, of course, the international dragon boat races in June.

Blockbusters will include BlackPink World tour in January, the Hong Kong marathon, which draws in runners and their supports from around the world, and the Hong Kong Tennis Open also in January.

That is good for the inbound and outbound tourists alike. But more needs to be done to tip the tourism scales to a surplus for Hong Kong’s economy to grow at a faster pace. As the saying goes charity starts at home, so it is up to us as local residents who have reaped the benefits of the city to spend more in local restaurants and retail outlets than spend it elsewhere. Support local enterprises. After all, the restaurants in Hong Kong are ranked among the best in the world and are tax free as against a value-added tax applied to restaurants and shops in the mainland.