A court at the former British colony of Hong Kong, now firmly under control of the Chinese communists, faces the question of whether to make a martyr of a former press baron and convict him of conspiring with foreign forces against Chinese rule.

Jimmy Lai, 76, erstwhile publisher of the popular Apple Daily, was led Monday into Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Court for the opening of an ordeal that’s likely to last for more than two months as prosecutors make an example of a heroic figure who dast criticize Beijing.

Yet it’s Communist China that’s in effect on trial as the case illuminates the communist crackdown on the vestiges of free speech and a free press that was supposed to endure beyond the end of British rule in 1997. The Communist Chinese party boss, Xi Jinping, seems determined to make an example of Mr. Lai, who’s been in jail for three years awaiting a show trial that’s sure to find him guilty of everything.

Mr. Lai, who made his fortune by founding men’s clothing shops with the unlikely Italian name of Giordano, started his own media empire, Next Digital, and founded Apple Daily in 1995. He emerged on the wrong side of Beijing when he denounced the regime’s ruthless suppression of the uprising in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

The trial will provide a reminder of Beijing’s harsh repression of democracy in Hong Kong. The former British colony’s civil liberties — including the freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, and the ability to vote in free local elections — were supposed to endure for 50 years after the reversion of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. Apple Daily, until authorities shut it down in June 2021, was a strong voice for free speech against communism.

“Western media and political figures have launched a public opinion campaign by badmouthing the city’s rule of law and the National Security Law for Hong Kong,” thundered China’s English-language propaganda paper, Global Times, as the trial opened. 

“Officials from both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong,” Global Times observed, call “these criticisms blatant interference in China’s internal affairs.” Ominously, the paper added, “Any attempts to slander, disrupt and sabotage the NSL for Hong Kong will never succeed.” 

Prosecutors are counting on six one-time Apple Daily executives and managers to testify against their former boss. They, and two others, have pleaded guilty to colluding and conspiring with Mr. Lai — the only way to avoid lengthy sentences that are hanging over them. The three-judge panel, appointed  by Hong Kong’s Beijing-approved chief executive, is not likely to veer from the party line.

Mr. Lai does, however, have one thing going for him. He’s neither a Chinese nor a Hong Kong citizen. Rather, he’s British, and British authorities are demanding his release in a bargaining game the Brits may turn into a cause célèbre. 

The British foreign secretary, David Cameron, has decried Mr. Lai’s ordeal as “a clear attempt to stop the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association.” Indeed, he said, by jailing Mr. Lai, Beijing was in violation of the joint declaration issued by China and Britain in 1984 under which the colony was to exist in freedom for half a century beyond 1997.

Washington also is on board, at least to the extent of issuing a pro forma demand for the release of Mr. Lai and “all others imprisoned for defending their rights.” The Chinese responded by denouncing Mr. Lai not only for having masterminded anti-government riots but, worse, for having been “an agent” of Beijing’s enemies. It’s enough to guarantee he never gets out of jail.