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. **
As Hong Kong has been developing in leaps and bounds, so has its medical services increased to meet local demands.
And with planned new hospitals in the Northern Metropolis along with current expansion and construction development, expertise is expected to increase and the dreaded waiting times for patients will be considerably reduced.
Hong Kong is poised to be the medical centre of Asia.
Currently, Hong Kong has about 36,000 beds in 43 public hospitals and 14 private hospitals. And already they are overcrowded, aided undoubtedly by an increasing aging population. Patients have to wait up to two hours for a consultation in public hospitals and up to a year or more for onward specialised bookings for appointment.
But that is about to change. Opening on December 11 in Tseung Kwan O will be the 400-bed Chinese Medicine Hospital of Hong Kong run by the Baptist University under the umbrella of the Health Bureau of the government and not to be confused with the Hospital Authority which runs all public hospitals and clinics in Hong Kong.
This is a major breakthrough for Chinese medicine (CM) to be fully integrated with research into western-Chinese medicines while serving the community. It will be the flagship for the 18 Chinese medicine clinics already operating in all districts in Hong Kong.
In its first year of operation, it will provide only outpatient 25 beds and day-patient services and six specialised CM services – internal medicine, external medicine, gynaecology, paediatrics, orthopaedics and traumatology, and acupuncture and moxibustion. It will also provide 12 special disease programs including those for elderly degenerative diseases and stroke rehabilitation.
Inpatient services will start from late next year, with other services expanding year by year, including the remaining 11 special disease programs. It is expected that by the end of 2030, the hospital will provide full inpatient services with its 400 patient beds, as well as outpatient services of 400 000 annual attendances.
Construction is also well underway and above the foundations for the North District Hospital (NDH) extension in Sheung Shui. The expansion of NDH mainly covers the construction of a new hospital block, refurbishment, alteration and addition to existing hospital building, and the provision of associated internal roadworks as well as external and landscaping works. Upon completion of the expansion project in about 2028, the hospital will provide about 1,500 additional beds, atop of its 680 existing beds.
And then comes the mother of all hospitals: The Northern Metropolis Hospital in Ngau Tam Mei, south of Yuen Long, is developing a new integrated medical teaching and research hospital which will become the flagship hospital of the Northern Metropolis with about 3 000 beds, providing comprehensive healthcare services for the new population in the area.
Last year in his policy address, the Chief Executive John Lee announced plans for developing a new integrated medical teaching and research hospital which will become the flagship hospital of the Northern Metropolis, providing comprehensive healthcare services.
The area is a goldmine for development. Representing about one third of Hong Kong’s total land area, existing agricultural land and fishponds will be turned into a massive hub for international scientific and technical research and development.
In the First Hospital Development Plan, there are three projects in two clusters, including the expansion of North District Hospital, the redevelopment of Prince of Wales Hospital, and the extension of Operating Theatre Block for Tuen Mun Hospital. It is anticipated that a total of 1 950 additional beds and other hospital facilities will be provided by 2031 in the New Territories after the completion of the three projects, bringing the physical bed capacity in the east and west clusters in the New Territories to about 12 000 beds.
Most importantly on the backburner is a decision by the Chief Executive in Council (ExCo) last year that a site of about two hectares be reserved in the San Tin Technopole (between Yuen Long and Sheung Shui) for healthcare facilities “which may include private hospital use.”
A private hospital in the New Territories opens up many possibilities, including medical tourism.
The Chinese medical hospital will draw in many tourists from the mainland and Asia seeking medical help through traditional Chinese and western medicine methods. A tourism hospital situated along the Chinese boundary will boost tourism figures ten-fold.
A case in point is the Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. It is a classic example of how the private sector can benefit in healthcare. Founded in 1980, Bumrungrad International Hospital has been a global pioneer in providing world-class healthcare services and international patient support for nearly four decades. The hospital is an internationally accredited, multi-specialty hospital listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand since 1989. It is, perhaps the largest private hospital in Southeast Asia, caring for more than 1.1 million patients annually from more than 190 countries.
