Defend our Values: Why Notre Dame Must Honor Jimmy Lai

by Rev. Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C., and Eoghan Fay

Amid the shot and shell of Vladimir Putin’s barbarous and despicable invasion of Ukraine, we in the West are now seeing the consequences of our failure to defend our values. For too long the United States, the European Union and our prominent institutions refused to take a firmer stance against an aggressive and expansionist Russia. In response to the horrific war in Ukraine, Western governments, institutions and corporations have finally summoned the courage to ostracize and penalize the Russian Federation. Still, even as the dreadful and bloody conflict rages on, and the sanctions against Russia bite, we cannot, and indeed must not, permit Putin’s collaborator and enabler to escape our notice: Xi Jinping’s Communist China. No, even as we prosecute our case against Russia, the threat to democracy posed by China must also attract our attention. The University of Notre Dame ought to take the lead in this worthy campaign to defend our beliefs in the face of Beijing’s crusade against democracy and freedom. This May, therefore, this university should seize the opportunity to confer an honorary degree on Hong Kong democracy advocate Jimmy Lai. Let 2022 be the year Notre Dame stood up and spoke out against tyranny wherever it is found.

Jimmy Lai, best known for founding the now outlawed pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, is a man whose determination and staunch defense of international liberal values should inspire us all. A devout Catholic convert, Mr. Lai is presently imprisoned in Hong Kong by the Communist regime, charged with spurious allegations of “sedition” and “collusion” with foreign powers, under Beijing’s infamous new internal security law. Eventually, Mr. Lai will be put on trial in farcical proceedings masquerading as “justice,” and will face life in jail either in Hong Kong or on the mainland. His only true “offense” is, of course, that he has doggedly opposed mainland China’s efforts to strangle Hong Kong’s internal democratic government, guaranteed under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. Mr. Lai’s courageous and unfailing defense of democracy and human rights deserves the highest recognition we can bestow. 

We, the authors of this piece (a professor and an undergraduate), have taken pen in hand to seek support from all Notre Dame faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members. As a Notre Dame family, let us all do our bit to persuade Our Lady’s University to acknowledge Mr. Lai and his righteous struggle for a fundamental human right: the right to determine one’s future. Fr. Edward Sorin founded this university to be a source of good in the world. Today, we see that forces of oppression are on the march in Europe and in Asia. The principles upon which this university, and indeed the United States at large, stand are in jeopardy. This cannot be a question of politics for Notre Dame, rather it is a question of morality. In the face of such a blatant evil as the Beijing regime, there can be no neutrality. We must lend our voice in support of Jimmy Lai and all those who fight for freedom in China. Let Notre Dame act with courage and lead other prominent Western institutions to recognize the horrors committed by Communist China. Together, as one unified Notre Dame family, let us heed the call of Proverbs 31:9: “Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

 

All too often in the past, Western governments and institutions have chosen to turn a blind eye to China’s outrageous acts. Whether it is the inhuman treatment of over one million Muslims in Xinjiang, the increasing military intimidation of Taiwan or the suppression of democracy in Hong Kong, the West has done little in response but wring its hands and dither. We have already seen the result of Western silence play out in Mariupol and Kharkiv. Can we learn from this painful experience and change our ways? We all know the phrase “the Notre Dame difference.” It is repeatedly brandished before every newly arrived first-year student each August. The struggle for democracy in Hong Kong presents us with an opportunity to demonstrate that difference in action. Notre Dame should not be numbered among other cowardly Western institutions cringing and scrapping at the foot of the despot Xi Jinping.

In the past, Notre Dame has stood with the oppressed and downtrodden. The time is now right for Fr. Jenkins to do for Jimmy Lai what Fr. Theodore Hesburgh did for Lech Walesa. In 1982, as the Soviet puppet government in Poland sought to crush Lech Walesa’s pro-democracy Solidarity movement, Our Lady’s University conferred an honorary degree on Mr. Walesa in absentia. Like Jimmy Lai does now, Lech Walesa then sat in jail, under the thumb of a Marxist dictatorship. The degree citation described Mr. Walesa as “a man who has shown the world… that ideas can be outlawed, movements crushed, and people imprisoned, but the human instinct for freedom and dignity can never be suppressed.” Today, Jimmy Lai and his fellow democratic Hong Kongers are struggling for the same freedom and dignity as Eastern Europeans did forty years ago. They deserve the same recognition from our university.

We are neither naive nor ignorant of the power of China. To honor Jimmy Lai will undoubtedly come at a cost. Beijing’s insidious tentacles extend deep into Western media, universities, institutions and corporations. Indeed, just this year, Notre Dame’s official broadcast partner, NBC, transmitted coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which dripped in subservience to the Xi dictatorship. Nobody disputes that the Chinese regime has amassed immense economic and political muscle in recent decades. Opposition to Beijing is a task not easily undertaken and rarely unpunished. Still, we in the West are lucky since the cost of China’s dissatisfaction can at most be measured in dollars. For Jimmy Lai and all internal critics of China, the price of sticking to their principles is much higher. The issue of money should never be a roadblock to Notre Dame’s committed and impassioned defense of its values. Whatever the consequences of invoking the ire of the Chinese Communist Party may be, therefore, let us bear them with a cheerful willingness and ready endurance. We, after all, shall have something far more valuable than all of Xi’s tainted gold — our moral rectitude.

Indeed, should this university take a public stand for human rights alongside Jimmy Lai, others may be inspired to follow suit. It cannot be denied that the name of the University of Notre Dame carries prestige and influence. At a time when even the Holy See, through its notorious power-sharing pact with China over bishops’ appointments, kneels to Communist China, the world needs courageous and strong moral leadership. What better institution to set an example of protecting the oppressed than the world’s most prominent Catholic university? Let us set a compelling example of standing on principle, in defense of Western values and in solidarity with truth-tellers. Honoring Jimmy Lai’s fight for democracy would clearly and permanently signal that this university’s disposition is one of courage over appeasement and that we will never have any truck with Marxist repression.

Additionally, standing with Jimmy Lai can also offer an important lesson to ourselves. Not only can Notre Dame prompt others to follow us, but we can also remind ourselves of how precious democratic freedoms and human rights are. Freedom is in retreat across the globe. Nevertheless, around the world, the undaunted defenders of liberty are putting up spirited and brave resistance against oppression and brutality. Their daily struggle is a constant reminder that there is more to life than political and financial expediency. How hollow a swelling bank balance would be if we had no moral fiber left in us. The frontline of the fight for democracy is found not only in Kyiv, but also in Kowloon. As a Notre Dame family, confident in our values and true to ourselves, let us hoist the standard of freedom below our Golden Dome and rally Western institutions to the defense of our shared beliefs.

Conferring an honorary degree on Jimmy Lai would not be a radical departure from Notre Dame’s self-proclaimed mission. As noted earlier, to thunderous applause in Notre Dame Stadium, this university awarded an honorary degree to Lech Walesa in 1982. At the time, Soviet troops occupied Afghanistan, nuclear missiles pointed threateningly at Washington, London and Paris and the U.S.S.R. sought to extend its dominion over the entire world. The stakes in 1982 were as high as they now are in 2022. Notre Dame, nevertheless, followed its conscience above its fear of Communist reaction. We must once again be guided by our better angels in the case of Jimmy Lai and democracy in Hong Kong. In this season of Lent, banners on the lampposts across campus remind us of the words of the constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross: “We hope for a world where justice and love prevail.” We should not, however, keep this hope to ourselves, nor seek to isolate our campus from the world at large. Indeed, for Notre Dame to ally with Jimmy Lai and his just fight would be a perfect encapsulation of our university’s vocation to a cause higher and better than narrow self-improvement. Since it is our hope to see a world defined by justice not oppression, hope not despair and freedom not subjugation, let us act in support of our words.

Therefore, we appeal to every member of the Notre Dame family — students, faculty, staff, alumni, fans, community members — and to the administration itself: Honor Jimmy Lai. We are under no illusions. We are aware that if Notre Dame does award an honorary degree to Jimmy Lai, it will not prevent the murder of democracy in Hong Kong, nor the bullying of Taiwan, nor the appalling mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslims. Nevertheless, this university faces an important choice. We can choose to ignore the crimes of Beijing, or we can lend our public support to Jimmy Lai and all those who risk everything for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We believe it is time to demonstrate once and for all that Our Lady’s University will defend the values in which we believe, no matter where or by whom they are imperiled. It is time for the light of truth to shine bright from the Golden Dome and disperse the fog of lies promulgated by the Xi dictatorship. For the sake of us all, give Jimmy Lai the honorary degree he so rightly deserves. Jimmy Lai’s life will tell the Notre Dame family that standing up for basic human rights and our fundamental principles matters. As such, we, the authors of this piece, implore the university community: Let us keep faith with Notre Dame’s unique and proud mission to be a positive force in the world. Together, let us raise our voices in defense of the unheard and the democratic values in which we sincerely and devotedly believe.