In the latest example of the Chinese communist regime’s ongoing suppression of human rights, reports emerged Monday that former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was convicted of supposed national security violations and seditious acts as a result of his pro-democracy activism in 2019 and 2020. The news comes as China’s economy showed signs of a broad slowdown, with data pointing to a likely connection between the country’s decades-long campaign of human rights violations and its economic woes.

As reported by National Review, Lai, who is 78, “was convicted of conspiracy to collude with a foreign country to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious publications.” The conviction stems from Lai’s pro-democracy activity during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests that took place in 2019 and 2020 after Beijing instituted measures undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy. Lai was a leading figure in the protests and founded the pro-free speech publications Next Magazine and Apple Daily, both of which were among the most popular publications in Hong Kong. Lai was a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) authoritarian government, and often penned op-eds himself.

Lai was arrested in August 2020, and his Apple Daily newspaper was shut down by the CCP after his assets were frozen. Lai has spent the last five years in custody, mostly in solitary confinement. His sentence, which is scheduled for a later date, could be life in prison due to the charges of collusion.

The actions against Lai come on the heels of the Xi Jinping regime’s latest repression of Christians. In October, the government launched a sweeping crackdown on the 10,000-member Zion Church, arresting 22 of its pastors and staff members across nine provinces and municipalities. The action came after the church, which is not officially registered with the government, declined to install security cameras on its property at the government’s behest.

China’s communist regime has embarked on a sustained campaign of persecution against religious practitioners and democracy advocates for decades, but it has seen a surge in persecution under the rule of Xi Jinping, who took power as China’s dictator in 2012. Human rights experts estimate that over the past six years, thousands of prisoners of conscience have been arbitrarily detained, with at least 1,545 being convicted and facing an average sentence of six years in prison. This is but a small fraction of the estimated number of individuals currently incarcerated for their religion, with between 500,000 to one million Falun Gong practitioners in prison at any given time and almost 500,000 Uyghur Muslims also incarcerated. Several thousand Christians are also thought to be imprisoned, but precise numbers are difficult to obtain due to the communist regime’s lack of transparency.

With the surge in persecution under Xi has also come undercurrents of economic weakness within China’s massive economy, which ranks as the world’s second largest behind the U.S. On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the country’s “economic momentum slowed broadly in November,” with retail sales growth and industrial production both down from previous months, and fixed-asset investment, property investment, and average home prices in 70 cities shrinking noticeably when compared to last year’s numbers. The WSJ noted that “The investment pullback reported by China in recent months is among the worst declines recorded in the country’s history.”

Data show that there may be a link between the CCP’s sustained efforts to suppress religious freedom and conscience rights and its deteriorating economy. As observed by Regent University’s Andrew Nolte and Family Research Council’s Arielle Del Turco, a Georgetown University and Brigham Young University study “examined 173 countries and discovered a strong correlation between religious freedom and economic growth.” The study found that “after controlling for more than 20 factors, religious freedom was one of the only variables that was still a major predictor of gross domestic product (GDP) growth.”

Nolte and Del Turco further pointed out that “Ten out of twelve indicators of economic competitiveness strongly correlate with religious freedom. In particular, innovative strength is twice as likely in countries with low government restrictions on religion and low social hostility to religion.”

Nolte and Del Turco went on to highlight the work of professor and researcher Ilan Alon, who found that “religious freedom and the absence of religiously motivated conflict and persecution have been found to correlate with economic growth.” One of the primary reasons for this correlation, according to Alon, is that “religious freedom is a building block for other core political freedoms that strengthen democracy, including freedom of speech and association.” In addition, “religious freedom supports religious plurality and diversity. This attracts talented individuals of all faiths and allows them to participate fully in the economy without discrimination.”

“Religious freedom contributes to a stable society,” Nolte and Del Turco emphasize. “That stability fosters economic opportunity and allows businesses to grow and operate in an environment that does not suffer from religiously motivated violence or discrimination.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Del Turco elaborated, “For those who care about the human rights of the Chinese people, it’s been disappointing to see Beijing double down on its repressive measures, especially against Christians. With the conviction of Catholic free speech and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai and the raids and arrests of Chinese pastors, conditions appear to be worsening in China.”

“It’s interesting that at the same time the Chinese government is doing these things, the country’s economy is also struggling,” she added. “While there is not always a direct connection between economy and religious freedom conditions, researchers have broadly identified a correlation between the two. That’s just one more reason why it is helpful for international development for world leaders to encourage developing countries to improve their religious freedom and human rights conditions.”