Lai’s wife, daughter meet Pope Leo

The family of Jimmy Lai are now praying for Divine Providence to intervene in the case of the jailed publisher after they visited the Holy See in the Vatican.

Lai’s wife, Teresa, and daughter, Claire, spoke with Pope Leo XIV after a general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on October 15. Vatican Media issued a picture and caption only of the meeting and made no comment on the substance of the talks. Also, no comment was made by the Pope regarding Lai’s internment.

But a “general audience” with the Pope is generally a public event every Wednesday when the pope meets and greets the flock. Lai’s son Sebastian told AsiaNews agency of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Milan, Italy, that it was was “one of those public events when you go up, you just shake, he just blesses you. But she (Teresa) understood that he knows the situation.”

He added: “So, meeting Pope Leo XIV and having the support of so many people, so many Catholics, is obviously immense.”

Lai — who converted to Catholicism in 1997 and who has spoken publicly about his faith on numerous occasions — was first arrested just over five years ago on charges related to conspiracy and incitement to overthrow the government. To garner support, the western media often refer to Lai as being a fighter for democracy. But democracy was rarely mentioned during his 156-day trial, instead practically all evidence referred to incitement and collusion with foreign forces to rebel against and sanction the Hong Kong administration.

The verdict is expected sometime in December/January.

But a late starter to the chorus of supports is Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney who told the Globe and Mail that he supports the release of Lai on humanitarian grounds and that he believes in freedom of the press.

Press freedom is one thing but it should not be confused with abuse by the press, which we see so often these days. Carney and others draw their collective wisdom from the media which has a hidden agenda to boost readership through sensationalism. There is a journalistic adage: “don’t let the facts spoil a good story.”

Canada’s relationship with Hong Kong/China was marred in 2018 when the Canadian government unlawfully arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, holder of a Hong Kong permanent ID and passport, at the behest of the US government. She was later released in September 2021 after extradition proceedings against her failed to materialise when she cut a deal with the US Justice Department.

Despite pressure from Lai’s supporters, it is doubtful if Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand who visited China on October 16 and 17 for meetings with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi raised the Jimmy Lai case with him. However, she is also playing host to the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting next month in the Niagara Region where Lai has millions in investments, including a string of hotels and restaurants, and supporters hope she will raise the issue then.

The same applied when Carney met with President Xi at the ASEAN meeting in Malaysia last week. They had more pressing worldly matters to discuss.

Team Lai, led by son Sebastien and the highly priced public relations/lawyers Doughty Street Chambers in London, have been digging deep into the Lai fortune of some US$2.5 billion (according to Forbes), drumming up support for the release of Jimmy Lai. Their latest strategy is to emphasize his ill health.

Lai, 77, is receiving daily shots of insulin to keep his blood levels low. Although Team Lai bitterly complains to anyone who listens that he is not getting proper medical attention in jail, his local legal team representing him in court say otherwise under oath that he is getting proper treatment and is being well looked after while in self-sought solitary confinement. He is also being availed to mass and holy communion every Sunday.

The millions of dollars pouring into the “release Jimmy Lai fund” is a total waste of money as the British lawyers fully know that a person, being denied bail, cannot be released during an ongoing trial.

Mark Pinkstone

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

Hong Kong’s ambitious Northern Metropolis has received a shot in the arm with a HK$150 billion (US$19 billion) fund launch to kick-start the high-tech park’s development.

The site is massive, covering some 30,000 hectares, which is about one third of Hong Kong’s total land area and about the size of Philadelphia in the USA, or Edinburgh in Scotland.

And before the ink has dried since the announcement of the plan, more than 60 firms have moved into the first two buildings in the Phase 1 development of the San Tin Technopole, the centrepiece of the entire project. The infrastructure is already well in place: drainage has been laid, internal roads built with slip roads connecting to the main highway, electricity has been connected and buildings are sprouting like stalagmites while construction cranes dot the skyline. The area is a hive of activity.

When completed, the project will create 650,000 jobs and house 2.5 million people.

Naturally, such a project will require money, and Hong Kong has plenty of that. Hong Kong is the world’s top capital market, ranking the top spot for Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in 2025. A combination of revenue earned from IPOs and bond sales, pushed Hong Kong’s 2025-26 budget to a surplus to some $3 billion (US$383 million). As Hong Kong is the envy of the world for its monetary management, raising the necessary funds for the $224 billion ($28 billion) project should not be difficult.

Normally, surpluses go into the government’s exchange fund, currently standing at $4.1 trillion ($524 billion), which is used to maintain the Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the US dollar. But with such ambitious plans afoot, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has proposed taking some $150 billion ($19 billion) from the exchange fund to support the Northern Metropolis. Investment returns from the exchange fund last year topped $300 billion ($38 billion). This, he sees, as an investment, not an expenditure. After all, he said, this is only half of last year’s profits.

In his Budget speech last week Chan announced the setting up of a “Northern Metropolis Urban-Rural Integration Fund” which will entail an initial capital of $200 million ($25.5 million) to boost rural tourism in the area. Hong Kong is rich in heritage, and some 200 villages will benefit from the scheme. Another $1 billion ($128 million) will be earmarked for a heritage conservation fund for revitalzation projects and maintenance of historic buildings.

The government will also inject another $10 billion ($1.27 billion) into an adjacent project known as the Hetao Hong Kong Park, otherwise known as the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park. A dedicated company for this development, set up by the government in 2023 is seeking public-private partnerships to take up its offer to occupy some 1 million square metre gross floor area on 87.7 hectares of land. It is expected this site alone will provide some 52,000 innovation and technology jobs.

Although the metropolis is mainly high-tech, it will also house a university town with accommodation for students and a training hospital, as well as possibly earmarking some land for private hospital development. Applications will soon be open to develop campuses in the Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen area with an offer of $10 billion ($1.3 billion) in loans to the successful applicants. Tertiary education bonds are likely to be issued to support the construction of the university and its facilities. The universities have the capacity to issue bonds with their substantial financial reserves and profitable self-financing programes. After all it is normal for universities elsewhere to raise capital by the issuance of bonds. The government can provide a guarantee for the bonds, allowing them to receive a credit rating equivalent to government bonds which currently stands at AA+.

Investors can rest assured the Chinese Central Government will do everything in its power to preserve its southern treasure for generations to come with Hong Kong being the pinnacle for the Greater Bay Area.