Hong Kong’s last British governor, Chris Patten, has chosen Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai as his man of the year, saying Lai’s “handcuffs and chains are a tragic symbol of what has happened to Hong Kong’s once-free society in 2020.”

Lai was sent into custody after being charged with fraud as well as collusion with foreign forces under Hong Kong’s national security law, pending a hearing on April 16. By jailing Lai, the Chinese Communist Party intends to reinforce the new limits to the rule of law, dissent, and autonomy in the city, Patten said.

“But imprisonment often ennobles fighters for democracy and bolsters support for their cause,” Patten wrote in a piece published on the Project Syndicate website. The former Hong Kong governor compared Lai with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Václav Havel.

“The Chinese government hates Lai, because he embodies a passionate belief in freedom, and we must hope that any time Lai spends in prison will be in Hong Kong rather than the mainland,” Patten said.

Patten also criticized leaders in the United States, Russia, Turkey and Hungary but said that Chinese President Xi Jinping was the one who has represented the most serious threat to liberal democratic values this year.

The Communist Party initially covered up the COVID-19 outbreak and silenced brave doctors who blew the whistle, he said. Chinese forces have also killed Indian soldiers in the Himalayas, sunk and threatened other countries’ fishing vessels in international waters, menaced Taiwan and continued to pursue genocidal policies toward Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, Patten added.

China promised that Hong Kong would continue to enjoy its way of life and high level of autonomy for 50 years following the 1997 handover, but that promise, like many others made by the Communist Party, has now been junked, Patten said.

China was “clearly horrified” that elections and protests increasingly showed that most people in Hong Kong refused — like the Taiwanese — to accept that to love China, they had to love the Communist Party, Patten said.

Aspects of an open society, such as the separation of powers, freedom of expression and market economy, terrify Xi’s regime, he said. “All dissent is to be crushed, with democracy campaigners thrown into prison.”

Lai was moved to the high-security Stanley Prison on Friday. He was in good spirits, his daughter said after visiting him in jail.

Lai was brave to stay in Hong Kong instead of fleeing, said Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je. The image of Lai in shackles would only cause greater anti-China sentiments in Taiwan, he added.

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