Hong Kong Executive Council member and senior counsel Ronny Tong Ka-wah has said the sentence handed down to Jimmy Lai, the instigator of anti-China riots in Hong Kong, was within expectations. 

The High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Monday sentenced Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison.

Tong pointed to the wealth and influence of Lai, which contributed to the severity of Lai's breach of the national security law. 

"He controlled a major media in Hong Kong. He has friends in high places in the United States, high officials, as high as vice president or even the President of the United States. And so his influence is very great," said Tong. 

"A person of that kind of influence, persuading a foreign power to impose sanctions on his own country, is a very, very serious matter," Tong told CGTN.

Explaining the gravity of Lai's defiance of the national security law, Tong said, "if you compare that with say, a terrorist placing a bomb in a station, in the train station or bus station, the damage will be localized, but a sanction on a whole nation will affect livelihood. And so you can imagine the severity of the offense." 

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HKSAR chief executive: Jimmy Lai sentencing affirms rule of law, justice