WSJ’s McGurn Speaks Out on China Snatching Hong Kong Publisher Jimmy Lai: ‘I’m His Godfather, This is Very Personal for Me’

The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn took aim at China in a Sunday interview for arresting Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, calling the matter “very personal” to him as a guardian for Lai’s children.

“You and I know Jimmy Lai well,” noted Paul Gigot, a WSJ editorial board member and host of Fox News’ Journal Editorial Report. “We both lived in Hong Kong, and … Jimmy’s written for us over the years. What message is China sending by arresting him on this new security law?

Calling Lai a “good friend” to the Journal and the United States, McGurn said, “He knows a lot our team personally. I’m his godfather, to this is very personal for me. His family is very entwined in ours.

“This is a big week, because it marks the severest blow to freedom of the press,” McGurn said. “The reason they hate Jimmy is because he has a magazine and newspaper that are very, very popular, and they’re the only sort of real counter to the propaganda that’s been put on. And you look at how Beijing has acted, they put handcuffs on him when — thaw raided his newspaper with 200 police, and they put handcuffs on him and had the pictures go out to humiliate him.”

McGurn — who served as President George W. Bush’s chief speechwriter from 2006-08 — previously worked in Hong Kong for the Journal and for the Far Eastern Economic Review. He and his wife, Julie, also have three adoptive children from China.

Lai, the billionaire publisher of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, was arrested last week under a new national security the Chinese Communist Party passed to crack down on pro-democracy protesters. He was released on bail but has declined to describe the charges against him, telling Bloomberg Television in a Friday interview, “They’re trumped up. I can’t go further on the details.”

McGurn suggested the images of Lai’s arrest would help his image among Hong Kong citizens.

“Everyone in Hong Kong sees those handcuffs as badge of honor, because what you have in Jimmy is this extraordinary thing,” McGurn said. “This is a billionaire who’s willing to trade in the comfort of a billionaire’s life for a possible prison sentence as a dissident. And that’s happening to a lot of other people that aren’t as famous as Jimmy Lai.”

Gigot pointed out that Lai holds citizenship in the United Kingdom and in Taiwan, but chose to stay in Hong Kong.

“That’s the main point of his popularity,” McGurn said. “People see this. … Anyone that ever thought Jimmy Lai was going to run away doesn’t know Jimmy Lai. People see this billionaire willing to take the consequences. He has a home in Paris, he could live anywhere in the world. He could have avoided all this, but he’s not going to do it. And the corollary to that is, Hong Kong people are saying if a billionaire isn’t safe, what about me?”

Watch above via Fox News.