Never Take the Rule of Law for Granted: China and the Dissident

Saturday, September 20, 4:00 PM at the Norfolk Library

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Mark Clifford, author of The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became A Billionaire, Hong King’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic, and Jerome Cohen, author of the memoir Eastward, Westward: A Life in Law, sit with journalist Richard Hornik to discuss the rule of law and China.

Xi Jinping and Jimmy Lai have two very different visions of what it means to be Chinese and of the type of politics that are best for the Chinese people. Xi wants to control the citizenry and their narrative through the policies of the CCP. Lai wants to unstitch this control through the mechanisms of democracy and so-called western values. For years, Hong Kong was a shining example of the rule of law. This legacy differentiated it from China.  Its legal structure made it a financial powerhouse and the perfect conduit for international trade with the mainland. Hong Kong’s system stood out for its integrity; it was a system that its citizens and foreigners alike could trust.

In recent years, things have changed. Xi Jinping’s vision for China has imposed restrictive laws on the people of Hong Kong and has altered China’s relations with the West. These actions have been highlighted by the arrests of over 1900 people accused of various crimes against the state. No case is more emblematic of this than the ongoing trial of the former billionaire dissident Jimmy Lai who is facing life in prison.

What is happening in Hong Kong is all too familiar:  Can citizens rely on the justice system to protect them from an over-reaching executive? Or is the legal system now just an extension of the executive branch? Can optimism prevail when uncertainty, fear and the threat of prison become central to daily life? And, finally, what can we learn about the US involvement with Hong Kong’s democracy movement and support for Jimmy Lai?

The rule of law is central to the work of Cohen and Clifford.

Mark L. Clifford is the president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation. A Walter Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, he holds a PhD in history from the University of Hong Kong. Previously, Clifford was the editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) and publisher and editor-in-chief of The Standard (Hong Kong). He held senior editorial positions at BusinessWeek and the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong and Seoul.

Jerome A. Cohen is a professor of law at New York University School of Law and faculty director of its U.S.-Asia Law Institute. In addition to his responsibilities at NYU, Prof. Cohen served for several years as C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he currently is an Adjunct Senior Fellow. He is the author of eleven books, including People’s China and International Law: A Documentary Study.

Richard Hornik, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, is co-convener of its China Seminar, now in its 48th year. During his 40-year career in journalism he served as Executive Editor of AsiaWeek, News Service Director of TIME magazine, and bureau chief in Warsaw, Boston, Beijing and Hong Kong. He co-authored Massacre in Beijing: China’s Struggle for Democracy, and has written for Foreign Affairs, Fortune, The New York Times, and the Wall St. Journal. Hornik was also a Lecturer at Stony Brook University, where he helped develop and propagate its innovative News Literacy curriculum now used in over 40 universities worldwide. He was a Fulbright Specialist in Myanmar and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

“Lai’s journey—from an impoverished childhood in China’s southern Guangdong province during the Chinese civil war era to becoming one of Hong Kong’s richest men—is a genuinely gripping yarn.”

—Kevin Peraino, The New York Times