LM#76--Hong Kong's Thomas More - Jimmy Lai

A Prison Sentence As A Warning

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Those are the drums of Liberty. A 78-year-old man sits in solitary confinement tonight in Hong Kong. He could have left years ago. He could have said the words that would have set him free. He simply refused to lie. Let's talk about it on this Liberty Minute.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Welcome to the Theory to Action Podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Liberty Minute. I want to sit with you for a second on how long 20 years is. That's a sentence a Hong Kong court handed down this past February to a newspaper publisher named Jimmy Lai. Twenty years for a 78-year-old man. That's not a prison sentence. That's a death sentence with paperwork.

Thomas More And The Crime Of No

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Let's go to our sources. This is drawn from coverage by CNN Al Jazeera of all places. And the Committee to Protect Journalists on Lies February 9th, sentencing, 2026. And we'll also chime in with Robert Bolt's classic 1960 play, A Man for All Seasons. The story of Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England under Henry VIII. Two men, five centuries apart, same crime. You see, Thomas More wasn't executed because he led a rebellion. He didn't raise an army, he didn't storm a castle. His crime was smaller than that. And far, far more dangerous to a king. He refused to say something he believed was false. Henry VIII didn't just want more silence, he wanted his affirmation. He wanted Moore to stand up and declare out loud that the king was the head of the Church of England. Moore said no. He wouldn't do it. Not loudly, not with a fist in his air, just firmly, quietly, and forever. And that refusal, that refusal, the state had his head chopped off.

Who Jimmy Lai Is And Why

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Now let's turn to Jimmy Lai. Here's who he is. Born in mainland China, fled to Hong Kong at age twelve, built himself from a factory laborer into a self-made billionaire. He founded the pro-democracy newspaper The Apple Daily in 1995. He was arrested in 2020, August of 2020. He was held largely in solitary confinement ever since. He was convicted in December of 2025 on foreign collusion and sedate and sedition. On February 9, 2026, he was sentenced to 20 years, effectively a life sentence for a man of his age. He is also, and this matters, a devout Catholic. Retired Cardinal Joseph Zen sat with Lies, Jimmy Lai's wife outside the courthouse the day of the sentencing. This is a man, Jimmy Lai, who could have taken his fortune and disappeared to London or New York at any point of the last 20 years, but he stayed. And he published. He published the truth. He would not say the words Beijing needed him to say. Now, longtime listeners know this isn't the first time we've spoken out about Jimmy Lai. I covered his arrest back in 2022 when this whole thing was just getting started, and I'll drop a link to that episode in the show notes. So you can he hear how far this has come. But here's our most important nugget.

Why Tyranny Hates Unbought Men

SPEAKER_01 4:42

And here's what I want you to take away. Power, whether it wears a crown or a communist party badge, cannot tolerate a man who cannot be bought or frightened into agreement. That's it. That's the whole engine of this story. A conscience that will not bend exposes every conscience around it that already has. Think about what that means. Thomas More's refusal made the entire English court look weak by comparison. Jimmy Lai's refusal does the same thing today to a global business class that has spent thirty years making peace with Beijing for the sake of a market. Power doesn't just punish men like this. It makes examples of them because their courage is contagious. And contagion is exactly what a regime built on conformity, and that's the Communist Party in China cannot survive. Now we certainly talked about this before on this podcast, in addition to Jimmy Lai's great documentary, The Hong Kong, but we've also talked about this particular issue on power from Mark Levin's great book, Liberty and Tyranny. The great one, Mark Levin, has this nugget from his book. And it's been rattling around in my brain for the whole week. Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny, precisely because its principles are the founding principles. While on the flip side of that very coin, this is also true. Conscious is the antidote to tyranny. Because tyranny's whole business model depends on getting good men to say things they don't believe. And that's agonizing, isn't it? It's agonizing to sit with. Because it means the story really isn't about Hong Kong. It's a story about you and me. It's a story about us. Now, for the time being, we might never face a national security law. For the time being, we might never sit in solitary confinement in the United States for what we publish. But every single one of us faces smaller versions of Henry VIII's demand almost every week. A boss, a crowd, an algorithm asking us to say the easy thing, the safe thing, the thing that isn't quite true. And most people never even notice that they're being asked that question. They simply comply a little bit over and over until there's nothing left to defend. Thomas More didn't do that. He drew a line. Jimmy Lai didn't do that. He drew a line. And that's exactly why their stories matter to us. They take away our excuse. They prove that resistance doesn't require an army or a fortune. It requires a boundary held quietly, held firmly, held even when it costs you everything.

Your Next Small Test Of Truth

SPEAKER_01 8:21

And here's an action step we can take this week. The next time you feel the small pressure to say the comfortable lie instead of the inconvenient truth in a meeting, at a dinner table, at a forum, on a forum rather, that you're filling out. I want you to think of the 78-year-old man in a Hong Kong cell who chose otherwise. Because make no mistake about it, Jimmy Lai isn't just like Thomas More. He is Thomas More. Happening again, right now, in real time in a cell in Hong Kong while we go about our week. History isn't repeating itself from a safe distance, it's repeating itself on the front page. And that should sober all of us up here at home. Especially in the United States, especially, most especially in 2026 when we have radicals, and that word hits home because they are radical, being elected to office in many cities and states across this country right now, people who speak warmly of the very ideology that put Jimmy Lai in that cell. Communism isn't an abstraction from a history book. It is a horrific, horrid cancer. And once a country lets that cancer take hold, it doesn't stay contained. It spreads cell by cell, institution by institution, until good men are being asked to say things they don't believe just to keep their jobs. Reference. Go watch it. It's only about an hour and fifteen minutes.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

It's a great story about a great person. About the Thomas More of our day and age.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

So it falls on all of us, all of us. To today and every day say so plainly and without apology, the truth. No matter if we're speaking to power or to a friend. Before the diagnosis gets any worse in our country. And most importantly, let's keep Jimmy Ly in our prayers tonight and every night. Along with every man and woman sitting in a cell right now, simply refusing to bow to

Watch, Pray, And Keep Fighting

SPEAKER_01 11:35

power. For refusing to lie. Let's pray that the truth may come out. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on, and most importantly, keep fighting the good fight.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this in action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at TeenMojoAcademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.