In a verdict long foretold by China’s Communist Party, a Hong Kong court on Monday convicted Jimmy Lai, a media mogul and rambunctious critic of the rulers in Beijing, finding him guilty of crimes endangering national security.

周一，香港一家法院宣判媒体大亨、对北京统治者持激烈批评态度的黎智英犯有危害国家安全罪。这一判决早在中国共产党的预料之中。

The conviction, swathed in the formal garb of a nominally independent judicial system left over from British rule, was never in any real doubt. Mr. Lai, 78, has been pilloried for years by China’s ruling party and its loyalists in Hong Kong as a traitor, a crook and the leader of a subversive “gang of four” who must be severely punished.

这一判决披着英国统治时期遗留的、名义上独立的司法体系的正式外衣，从来没有任何真正的悬念。现年78岁的黎智英多年来一直被中国执政党及其在香港的支持者诋毁为叛徒、骗子和颠覆性“四人帮”的头目，必须受到严惩。

In this case, he was convicted of two counts of conspiring with foreign forces to impose sanctions against Hong Kong and another of publishing seditious material in the former British colony. He had already been convicted and imprisoned on fraud charges.

在本案中，他被裁定两项罪名成立，一项是串谋外国势力对香港实施制裁，另一项是在这个前英国殖民地出版煽动性材料。此前他已经因欺诈指控被定罪并入狱。

When Mr. Lai was arrested five years ago and released briefly on bail, a group of self-declared Chinese “patriots” gathered outside his home in Kowloon and waved banners warning ominously that “traitors who bring disaster to Hong Kong will not have a good end.”

当黎智英五年前被捕并短暂保释期间，一群自称是中国“爱国者”的人聚集在他位于九龙的家外，挥舞着横幅，上面写着“祸港汉奸，无好下场”这样恶狠狠的警告。

Monday’s verdict delivered on that warning and brought nearer to a close a case that has crystallized the changes that have swept Hong Kong since the introduction of a harsh national security law in 2020 in response to months of antigovernment street protests that the authorities suppressed.

周一的判决兑现了这份警告，也意味着本案离结案更近一步。此案折射出2020年严苛的国家安全法颁布后席卷香港的巨变——该法正是当局为镇压持续数月的反政府街头抗议而制定。

2019年，数万人走上街头抗议引渡法案，示威活动逐渐演变成一场更广泛的运动，反对北京方面对香港事务日益增加的干预。

Mr. Lai, who took part in the protests and supported them through his now defunct newspaper, Apple Daily, was seen by many outside the city’s elite as a symbol of what once made Hong Kong special: noisy irreverence, freewheeling rags-to-riches ambition and an impish disregard for the pomposity of British colonials and the turgid, often menacing, pronouncements of mainland officials.

黎智英曾参与抗议活动，并通过其现已停刊的《苹果日报》支持抗议。在本地精英阶层之外，许多人视他为香港昔日独特精神的象征：喧闹的叛逆、白手起家闯天下的自如，以及对英国殖民者浮夸做派和大陆官员冗长且常带威胁的声明所展现的顽童般的漠视。

His preferred language is Cantonese, the dialect of Chinese spoken by most people in Hong Kong, over the Mandarin used by Beijing. Apple and a sister publication, Next magazine, also now shuttered, used Cantonese slang popular with readers while at the other end of the spectrum, party-controlled newspapers in Hong Kong, which sold far fewer copies, wrote in a bloated mix of communist jargon and formal Chinese.

比起北京使用的普通话，他更喜欢粤语，这是香港大多数人所说的一种汉语方言。苹果及其姊妹刊物、如今也已停刊的《壹周刊》使用深受读者欢迎的粤语俚语，而在另一端，中共控制的香港报纸的销量要少得多，它们使用的是累赘的共产主义术语和正式中文的混合体。

Mr. Lai delighted in taunting fellow tycoons, many of whom repeatedly told him to shut up and parroted Communist Party talking points in pursuit of business on the mainland. He reveled in riling an elite polite society saturated with the hypocrisies of the colonial era and also of the Communist Party. Apple Daily feasted on entertainment gossip, gory crimes and for a time published a regular brothel review by a columnist who went by the name Fat Dragon. But it was also heavy on serious political coverage slanted in favor of demands for more democracy and exposing the riches of China’s top political families and cronyism.

黎智英喜欢嘲笑其他商业大亨，他们中的许多人一再叫他闭嘴，为获取大陆的生意机会而复述中共论调。他热衷惹恼精英阶层的优雅社交圈，这个圈子充斥着殖民时代的虚伪，也浸透着中共的伪善。《苹果日报》有大量娱乐八卦和血腥犯罪报道，曾长期刊登署名“肥龙”的专栏作家撰写的妓院评论；但它也有大量严肃的政治报道，倾向于要求更多民主，揭露中国高层政治家族的财富和裙带关系。

2021年在香港印刷的《苹果日报》。这份报纸在当年停刊。

“The establishment hates my guts,” Mr. Lai said in a 2019 interview with The New York Times. “They ask, ‘Why don’t you just let us make money in peace?’ They think I’m a troublemaker,” he said, adding: “I am a troublemaker, but one with a good conscience.”

“建制派对我恨之入骨，”黎智英在2019年接受《纽约时报》采访时说。“他们问，‘你为什么不能让我们安安静静赚钱？’他们觉得我是搅局者，”他说，并补充道：“我是搅局者，但却是有良心的搅局者。”

On the eve of Monday’s court ruling, members of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, once a boisterous mainstay of the city’s legislative assembly and its largest opposition force, voted to formally disband. The decision left an already crimped political landscape entirely in the hands of carefully vetted politicians whom the authorities have judged sufficiently patriotic to take part in limited elections.

在周一法院作出裁决的前夕，香港民主党的成员投票决定正式解散。民主党曾是香港立法会中喧闹的中坚力量，也是香港最大的反对派力量。这一决定使得本已遭受束缚的政治格局完全落入当局精心筛选的政治人物手中，这些人士被认定爱国程度足够高，得以参与有限的选举。

China took back control of Hong Kong in 1997, ending 156 years of colonial rule, after promising in a 1984 agreement with Britain that the “previous capitalist system and lifestyle shall remain unchanged for 50 years.” The agreement promised legal protection for rights and freedoms, including those of speech and assembly.

中国于1997年收回香港主权，终结了156年的殖民统治。根据1984年与英国达成的协议，中国承诺“保持原有的资本主义制度和生活方式，50年不变”，并保障包括言论和集会自由在内的各项权利与自由。

1997年7月1日，中英香港主权移交仪式。

But the arrangement known as “one country, two systems” has frayed as the Hong Kong government, at the party’s behest, has not only snuffed out public protest, previously a regular feature of life in the city, but viewed even mild criticism of Beijing as a threat. It has vowed to uproot “soft resistance,” citing what officials see as signs of foreign subversion in a book fair, music lyrics, a U.S. holiday celebration and environmental groups.

但是，在中共的要求下，香港政府不仅扼杀公众抗议，而且将对北京的温和批评视为威胁，这种被称为“一国两制”的安排已经受到损害。公众抗议曾是香港生活的常态。中国誓言要铲除“软对抗”，官员们列举了书展、歌词、美国节日庆祝活动和环保组织的例子，称其中存在外国颠覆的迹象。

Space for free expression has become so constricted that Hong Kong’s national security police have arrested more than a dozen people since the city’s deadliest fire in decades, a late-November blaze that engulfed seven apartment towers and killed at least 160 people. The authorities have been on heightened alert for what they say are “anti-China forces” looking to exploit the tragedy, but critics have said that the authorities are targeting people who call for greater government accountability.

言论自由空间日益收缩，自11月下旬香港发生数十年来最严重的火灾以来——大火吞没了七座公寓楼，造成至少160人死亡——香港的国家安全警察逮捕了十几人。当局一直高度警惕他们所称的“反华势力”试图利用这场悲剧，但批评人士表示，当局针对的实际上是那些呼吁加强政府问责的人。

The charges on which Mr. Lai was convicted can be punished by up to life in prison. A pre-sentencing hearing is set to begin Jan. 12.

黎智英被定罪的指控最高可判处终身监禁。量刑前听证会定于1月12日开始。

In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiankui welcomed Mr. Lai’s conviction. The court’s “actions are reasonable, lawful and beyond reproach,” he said, while condemning what he described as a “blatant defamation and smear campaign” by “certain countries” critical of the Hong Kong judiciary.

在北京，外交部发言人郭嘉昆对黎智英被定罪表示欢迎。他说，法院“合情合理合法，不容置喙”，同时谴责批评香港司法的“个别国家”是在“公然诋毁抹黑”。

周一，等待对黎智英的判决结果期间，法院外的警察。

The guilty verdict drew quick condemnation from Britain’s foreign minister, Yvette Cooper. (Mr. Lai is a British citizen.) In a statement posted on X, Ms. Cooper said “the UK condemns the politically motivated prosecution of Jimmy Lai that has resulted in today’s guilty verdict.”

英国外交大臣伊维特·库珀迅速对有罪判决表示谴责——黎智英是英国公民。在X上发布的声明中，库珀表示，“英国谴责出于政治动机对黎智英的起诉，这导致了今天的有罪判决。”

There was no immediate reaction from President Trump, who before his election last year promised “100 percent I’ll get him out. He’ll be easy to get out.” His administration has since curbed its hopes of extracting favors from China. In recent weeks it has worked to calm turbulent relations with Beijing following a trade war truce reached in October during a meeting in South Korea between President Trump and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.

特朗普总统没有立即做出反应，他在去年当选前曾承诺“我百分之百能把他弄出来。要把他弄出来很容易”。此后，他的政府已收敛从中国获取利益的期望。10月，特朗普总统与中方最高领导人习近平于韩国会晤，达成贸易战休战协议，美方近几周正努力平息与北京的紧张关系。

Media outlets in Hong Kong controlled by China’s Communist Party had pronounced Mr. Lai guilty long before the trial started.

中国共产党在香港的媒体早在审判开始前就已宣判黎智英有罪。

A 2020 enumeration of his alleged misdeeds by Wen Wei Po, a party-controlled Hong Kong newspaper, listed 10 “unpardonable crimes,” which ranged from treason to a lack of filial piety and drug use. These, the newspaper predicted, “make it extremely difficult for him to clear his name.”

2020年，中共控制的香港报纸《文汇报》列举了他所谓的罪行，称他“十恶不赦”，包括卖港、不孝和吸毒。《纽约时报》预测，这些“将使他极难洗清自己的罪名”。

That Mr. Lai had no real chance of doing that was clear even before his arrest. In a 2017 speech celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule, Mr. Xi, China’s leader and the general secretary of its Communist Party, described the red lines which he said it was “absolutely impermissible to cross.” These included “any challenges to the power of the central government in Beijing,” a line that Mr. Lai, an irreverent critic of Beijing authorities, crossed repeatedly.

黎智英根本没有机会洗清罪名，这在他被捕前就已显而易见。2017年，中国领导人、中国共产党总书记习近平在庆祝香港回归中国20周年的演讲中，阐述了所谓“绝不能允许”触碰的底线。其中包括“挑战中央权力”——而这位对北京当局直言不讳的批评者黎智英，早已屡次越界。

2017年，中国国家主席习近平访问香港。他在此次访问期间阐述了“绝不能允许”触碰的红线，其中包括任何挑战北京权威的行为。

Mr. Lai, in the party’s telling, was not just a lone troublemaker, a label he welcomed, but the mastermind of a plot to sow chaos. Officials also condemned those they saw as supporting him, including the American diplomat Julie Eadeh, who is now the U.S. consul general in the city; her bosses in the State Department; and other so-called anti-China elements, including a former U.S. naval intelligence officer, Mark Simon, who worked as a business adviser to Mr. Lai.

在共产党的叙事中，黎智英不仅是一个孤立的麻烦制造者（他本人喜欢这个标签），还是策划制造混乱的幕后主使。官员们还谴责了他们认为支持黎智英的人士，包括现任美国驻香港总领事、外交官伊珠丽(Julie Eadeh)和她在国务院的上司，以及其他所谓的反华分子，其中包括曾担任黎智英商业顾问的前美国海军情报官员马克·西蒙。

The newspaper Wen Wei Po described Mr. Lai as the “number one political agent painstakingly cultivated by the United States in Hong Kong.”

《文汇报》形容黎智英是“美国反华势力的头号代理人”。

The evidence for this, rolled out in a fiery propaganda article since his arrest and in prosecutors’ arguments during 156 days of court proceedings, consists mainly of the fact that he met at various times with American officials, made disparaging remarks about the Communist Party, and supported foreign sanctions for the curtailment of basic freedoms guaranteed in the 1984 agreement with Britain. In their 855-page ruling on Monday, the judges said the evidence against Mr. Lai clearly proved him guilty.

在他被捕后一篇激烈的宣传文章以及检方在156天庭审的陈述中，主要列举的证据包括他多次与美国官员会面，发表贬低共产党的言论，并支持外国以1984年中英协议保障的基本自由遭到限制为由发起制裁。在周一长达855页的判决书中，法官们表示，针对黎智英的证据充分证明他有罪。

An ebullient self-made millionaire and churchgoing Roman Catholic, Mr. Lai fled to Hong Kong at age 12 from China’s neighboring Guangdong Province. He made a fortune from a retail clothing chain, Giordano, but later threw himself into publishing, founding Next, a weekly magazine, and Apple Daily.

黎智英是一位白手起家、精力充沛的百万富翁，也是虔诚的天主教徒。12岁时，他从临近的中国广东省逃到香港。他通过零售服装连锁品牌佐丹奴积累财富，后投身出版业创办《壹周刊》及《苹果日报》。

Unlike many in Hong Kong, he disagreed with young pro-democracy activists who voiced indifference over the state of China and insisted they were not Chinese, but Hong Kongers. A few even called for “independence” for Hong Kong, a cause Mr. Lai never supported.

与香港多数人不同，他反对年轻民主人士对中国现状漠不关心、坚称自己是香港人而非中国人的态度。少数人甚至呼吁香港“独立”，黎智英从未支持过这一主张。

2019年，黎智英在香港参加守夜活动，悼念1989年在北京天安门广场及周边地区遇难的人们。

Each year he attended a candlelight memorial event in Hong Kong for those killed in the Chinese military’s assault on peaceful protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, and voiced support for Chinese dissidents who shared his concern over their country’s direction. The Hong Kong authorities have effectively banned the Tiananmen vigil since 2020, bringing the city into line with the rest of China, where any mention of the 1989 bloodshed is taboo.

每年他都会参加在香港举行的烛光悼念活动，悼念1989年在中国军队镇压北京天安门广场及周边地区和平抗议者事件中遇难的人士，并声援那些与他同样担忧国家走向的中国异见人士。自2020年起，香港当局实质上禁止了天安门守夜活动，使香港与大陆保持一致——在大陆，提及1989年的血腥镇压仍是禁忌。

Mr. Lai’s quarrel with Beijing, he said in the 2019 interview, was never over patriotism — literally “loving country” in Chinese — but over “loving the party,” a fusion of political and national loyalties at the heart of Mr. Xi’s concept of nation.

黎智英在2019年的采访中表示，他与北京的分歧从来不在于爱国，而在于“爱党”——这种将政治忠诚与民族忠诚融合的理念是习近平国家观的核心。

“I always feel Chinese because I belong to the older generation,” Mr. Lai said. “I had always hoped that China was changing and would become a democracy. I was wrong. It was wishful thinking.”

“我总感觉自己是中国人，因为我属于老一代，”黎智英说。“我一直希望中国改变，成为民主国家。我错了。这只是一厢情愿。”