By Catarina Demony and Sam Tabahriti
LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Britain should make pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai's release a condition of establishing closer relations with China, Lai's son Sebastien said on Monday after his father was found guilty of sedition and collusion by Hong Kong's High Court.
The verdict against the 78-year-old, who is a British citizen, means he could be jailed for life. It has been sharply condemned by the British government, which handed sovereignty of Hong Kong back to China in 1997.
Under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Britain is seeking closer ties with China after a decade in which relations soured over a broad range of issues including spying accusations, human rights concerns and national security laws in Hong Kong.
"Close relationships with China... If that's what you want, then fine, but there should be preconditions, and my father's release needs to be a precondition of that, because we're never going to normalise… a citizen of ours getting arrested abroad for standing up for freedom of democracy," Sebastien Lai said in an interview in London.
NATIONAL SECURITY LAW
Speaking at an earlier press conference, he said he was "heartbroken" over his father's poor health, and that the national security law China imposed on Hong Kong after pro-democracy protests in 2019 had been "weaponised" against someone who "essentially said stuff that they didn't like".
Starmer is expected to visit Beijing and Shanghai next month, ahead of a closely-watched decision due in January on whether to allow China to build a new embassy in central London.
The trip follows a visit to Beijing in September by Britain's trade minister, Peter Kyle, who held the first UK–China trade talks since 2018.
Lai's son said he had a message for government officials travelling to China: bring his father home, and make clear to Beijing and Hong Kong that "our values are not up for trade".
He said that, while he did not believe Britain should stop trading with China, it should not allow Beijing to get away with the mistreatment of people like his father and others.
"The rule of law underpins trade," he said.
CLOSER ENGAGEMENT
The Chinese and Hong Kong governments have said the trial was "fair and just" and that the national security law treated everyone equally.
After the verdict, China's national security office in Hong Kong called Lai a "pawn of external anti-China forces" who attempted a "colour revolution" in the city.
Starmer warned earlier this month that China posed "national security threats" to Britain, but defended his government's decision to step up engagement with the country.
Sebastien Lai said he believed the government, which has condemned his father's prosecution, was slow to assume its responsibility in the case, but that it is now "in the right place".
"Now's the time to push for action, not words," he said.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Sam Tabahriti, editing by Sarah Young, William James)
