Here's a simple truth about lies: tell one big enough, and someone will always believe it. The tale spun by Jimmy Lai's son and daughter—that their father's health is collapsing in prison without medical care—is a textbook case.
Before and after the verdict came down, a flood of misleading commentary washed across foreign media. In just eight days following the ruling, China's Foreign Ministry Commissioner's Office in the HKSAR fired off eight separate rebuttals targeting U.S. and Western statements. They also "summoned the heads of the Hong Kong-based missions of relevant countries and organisations, including the United States and the United Kingdom, and lodged solemn representations regarding their officials' and politicians' comments interfering in the verdict and sentencing in the Jimmy Lai case."
Cui Jianchun, the Commissioner, went further. He published a South China Morning Post piece titled "On the Jimmy Lai case, this is what you should know"—a direct hit against the rumor mill. The key question: Was Lai treated unfairly? Cui's answer was unequivocal: "Regarding the claims about Jimmy Lai's treatment while in custody, facts speak louder than words. The Correctional Services Department has consistently provided him with comprehensive medical care in accordance with the law, ensuring he remains in good health. Lai's defence lawyers confirmed in court that he had not been treated unfairly. These facts fully demonstrate that in every detail of law enforcement, the HKSAR government upholds the principles of the rule of law and humanitarianism."
The Children's Campaign of Fabrication
A large chunk of those rumors came straight from Lai's own children. On December 3, before the verdict dropped, Agence France-Presse interviewed them. The picture they painted was grim. Lai's daughter Lai Choi delivered the most dramatic claim: "Dad has clearly lost a lot of weight and is weaker than before. His fingernails turned purple, grey and green, and then fell off. His teeth have started to rot."
But wait, there's more. Lai Choi claimed prison officers blocked the devout Catholic from receiving Holy Communion. She described petty acts designed to break his spirit. Her example? Once guards learned Lai liked curry sauce, they cut him off completely—no more curry sauce at all.
Lai's son Lai Chung-yan piled on with his own dramatic narrative. Lai has diabetes, he said. The prison has no air-conditioning, with summer temperatures hitting 44°C. His solution? "Putting Lai on a plane and sending him away would take only two hours, and that doing so would be humane and the right thing to do."
I'm quoting at length for a reason. Watch how the lies unfold. Yes, Lai has diabetes. The fact is, he had spent years eating and drinking excessively. In prison, he's forced onto a healthy diet. As a Justice of the Peace I have visited prisons multiple times, and personally sampled the meals arranged according to dietitians' guidance. They taste like fast food you'd buy outside—perfectly normal.
Reality Check: What Observers Actually Saw
When Lai appeared in court, observers did notice he was slimmer than before imprisonment. But this is what I'd call a "healthy kind of slim." As for the curry sauce demand? Perhaps Lai Choi has confused Hong Kong prisons with Michelin-starred restaurants—as if inmates can order à la carte like diners at a high-end eatery. By the same logic, yes, there's no air-conditioning in prisons. People need to understand something fundamental: imprisonment is punishment, not a hotel vacation.
About those supposedly green, falling-off nails. When Lai attended the verdict hearing, people present saw his fingernails were normally pink and looked quite healthy. No one spotted any horrifying grey or green nails. None had fallen off. The real-world scene of Lai appearing in court told a different story—he looked to be in fairly good condition, nowhere near the death's-door state his children described.
Why are Lai's children lying so brazenly? Simple. They want foreign readers to believe Hong Kong's prisons operate like "dark jails" in a third-world country—that Lai is being abused. This makes their "rescue" campaign appear more necessary and urgent. It conveniently helps people forget what Lai actually is: a serious criminal who colluded with foreign forces seeking China's collapse.
The Question Lawyers Won't Answer
Everyone needs to grasp one simple fact: if Lai were truly being treated inhumanely, his own defence lawyers would have raised it in court. But lawyers can't lie. So they didn't. At an open hearing last August, Lai's senior counsel made crystal clear to the court that the correctional institution arranged daily medical check-ups for Lai. They had no complaints—zero—about the medical care he received inside. The court even stated at the time that the Correctional Services Department deserved praise.
It seems Lai's children think being overseas gives them a free pass to lie recklessly without bearing any responsibility. That's how you get fabrications like "fingernails turned green and fell off." They're spreading rumors about Lai's supposedly dire health for one purpose: to disrupt Hong Kong's rule of law and spring the convicted criminal through medical bail, then hand him over to a foreign country. But Hong Kong, as a society governed by the rule of law, has no arrangement to transfer convicted prisoners to foreign states. So no matter what rumors they spread, their goal won't be achieved.
Lo Wing-hung
Bastille Commentary
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
