‘As the Prime Minister travels to China, he carriers a moral responsibility’

As Keir Starmer heads to China this week, he carries more than trade briefs and diplomatic talking points in his red box. He carries a moral responsibility, one that, as a distinguished human rights lawyer, he is quite aware of – and that is Britain’s proud history of upholding free speech, the rule of law and democracy. 

At the centre of that responsibility is Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old British publisher and pro-democracy advocate who remains disgracefully imprisoned in Hong Kong awaiting sentencing on trumped-up national security and sedition charges for his work at the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper.       

After all the wrangling about the recent approval of  China’s mega embassy, parliamentary spy cases or the sanctioning of British MPs by the Chinese Communist Party, Lai’s case is a test of Britain’s credibility on the world stage. Lai has been imprisoned for five years for publishing a newspaper that stood for freedom and democracy.  

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His trial has been widely condemned by international legal experts as politically motivated, with serious concerns about due process, judicial independence, and his deteriorating health. 

The Government has a clear and direct stake in this case. Lai is a British citizen. Hong Kong’s freedoms were guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a treaty lodged at the United Nations and signed by Britain and China. When Beijing dismantles those freedoms, it is not merely violating universal values, it is breaking its word to the UK. 

For the Prime Minister to position himself as a serious, pragmatic statesman, one who believes in engagement and not empty megaphone diplomacy, engagement without principal risks becoming acquiescence. Raising Lai’s case firmly with Xi Jinping would not derail broader cooperation on climate, trade, or global security. On the contrary, it would signal that Britain can pursue constructive relations while still standing up for the rule of law and its own citizens.  

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History shows that sustained, high-level pressure matters, with the US, Canada, Australia and Ireland all securing the release of their citizens from China. The Prime Minister’s voice, delivered face-to-face in Beijing, would carry real diplomatic weight and give him the chance to be a hero and free a British citizen detained abroad. 

The UK has long prided itself on defending press freedom, democratic norms, and the safety of its citizens abroad. Allowing a British publisher to languish in prison for exercising those very freedoms sends a chilling message not only to Hong Kongers and journalists worldwide, but to Britons who expect their government to stand up for them when it counts. 

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Jimmy Lai’s release will not come easily. But diplomacy is not about choosing only the battles that are convenient; it is about fighting the ones that are necessary. Starmer has an opportunity, perhaps a rare one, to show that Britain’s commitment to its own citizens is not negotiable, and that British citizenship means something beyond a passport. 

When he sits across the table from China’s leaders, Jimmy Lai’s name should be spoken clearly. Justice, credibility, and conscience demand nothing less. 

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