Local hotel owner Jimmy Lai has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Lai, owner of a pro-democracy Hong Kong news organization now shuttered, is currently being tried for sedition in Hong Kong, under its new national security law. He has pleaded not guilty, and his supporters around the world, including his Niagara-on-the-Lake family, have denounced the trial as a sham.
A British citizen, Lai was the founder of Apple Daily, a media outlet openly critical of the Chinese Communist Party. It was closed after being raided by police and several staff members arrested. Lai had taken part in the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy street protests, and was charged with conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security. He was first jailed in 2020, released on bail and then arrested again later that year.
Lai Properties is the owner of Vintage Hotels, which includes several properties in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and others in Jordan and Caledon.
“We are thrilled to hear of Mr. Lai’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize,” Vintage Hotels president Bob Jackson said in an email to The Local. “As the founder, and undeniable inspiration for Vintage Hotels and the Lais Hotel group in Canada, it is a fitting recognition for someone who has sacrificed so much in the fight for freedom and democracy.”
“Our hope is that this continues to shine a light on the unjust trial and imprisonment of Jimmy in Hong Kong,” he continued. “As always, he is in our thoughts and in our prayers.”
International news organizations are reporting he was nominated by two Americans, Congressman Chris Smith and Senator Jeffrey Merkley. who chair a Congressional Executive Commission on China. They also nominated jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, and legal activists Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong.
The Associated Press is reporting that “while hundreds of people are often nominated for the annual prize, this nomination is certain to draw a sharp rebuke from Beijing.”
AP goes on to say, “All these individuals embody the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize and justly deserve the award,” Smith, a New Jersey Republican, and Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote. “The Peace Prize will focus world attention on all those struggling to exercise their fundamental human rights in the People’s Republic of China.”
Lai’s niece, Erica Lepp, told The Local in December, as his trial began, that the family has little expectation it will result in anything but conviction.
At least, she added, with international news sources reporting on it, “the eyes of the world are watching.”
