WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — An American Catholic university has honored a human rights activist currently imprisoned by the Chinese government.
This weekend, the Catholic University of America (CUA) awarded an honorary degree to media mogul Jimmy Lai. His son, Sebastien Lai, accepted the award on the father’s behalf.
On May 12, Sebastien Lai told EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo on “The World Over” that it “really means a lot to have the support of all these great people.”
“I’m sure he’ll be very happy to receive this award, and I’m sure knowing that all these people are praying for him and knowing that all these people have the same thoughts towards freedom and freedom of religion, freedom of expression, will make him incredibly happy,” Sebastian Lai said.
“Hong Kong used to be this island off the coast of China that had its own legal system and freedoms, and it just seems that these ideals keep getting degraded every single news cycle.”
74-year-old Jimmy Lai, a prominent Catholic human rights activist, has been arrested many times. Most recently, in December 2021, Lai was arrested after police characterized his participation in a pro-democracy protest as “an act of defiance and protest against the police.” He was charged with unlawful assembly after attending an annual vigil at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square commemorating the 1989 massacre of protesters there. The activist was sentenced to 13 months in jail.
In December 2020, he was arrested in Hong Kong; the Chinese communist regime accused him of fraud relating to the illicit use of his company’s property.
This was his second arrest that year. Earlier, the authorities alleged that he had violated sections of the newly passed National Security Law. He was released on bail shortly after this first arrest but was denied bail on the new fraud charges.
The CUA honors occurred shortly after Lai’s close friend, Cardinal Zen, was arrested by Hong Kong national security forces. Cardinal Zen, the Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, was taken into custody by Hong Kong police on May 11. He was released on bail some hours later.
Just as it offered no support for married layman Jimmy Lai during his arrest, the Vatican has yet to condemn the Chinese government for their detainment of Cardinal Zen.
Lai, who was baptized by Cardinal Zen, spoke of his conversion to Catholicism in 1997 during a video interview with the Napa Institute.
“When you lift yourself above your own self-interest, you find the meaning of life,” he said. “You find you’re doing the right thing, which is so wonderful. It changed my life into a different thing.”