Jimmy Lai

Self-Made Media Entrepreneur

Jimmy Lai was born in Guangdong Province in 1947 and came to Hong Kong at the age of twelve, working in a garment factory before founding the Giordano clothing brand in 1981 and amassing substantial wealth. After the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, he distributed 200,000 T-shirts supporting the movement to Hong Kong residents, after which he was blacklisted and boycotted by mainland Chinese authorities; in 1990 he sold his stake in Giordano and founded Next Media Group along with Next Magazine. In 1995 he went on to found Apple Daily, whose accessible style and bold editorial stance rapidly disrupted the Hong Kong newspaper market, at one point reaching a daily circulation of over 700,000; he later launched a Taiwanese edition. Apple Daily became a leading symbol of press independence in Hong Kong through its persistent criticism of Beijing and the Hong Kong SAR government.

Democratic Activism and Arrest

Lai was a prominent supporter of Hong Kong's democracy movement, participating in demonstrations and publicly meeting with U.S. politicians to advocate for Hong Kong. Following the promulgation of the National Security Law in June 2020, he was arrested in a high-profile police operation in August 2020 and subsequently charged with colluding with foreign forces, among other offences. Authorities froze his assets under the NSL, forcing Apple Daily to cease publication in June 2021. His trial formally opened on 18 December 2023 before three judges designated under the National Security Law; Lai himself testified from November 2024 to March 2025, and both sides completed closing arguments in August 2025. On 15 December 2025, the court convicted him on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material. On 9 February 2026, the court sentenced Lai to 20 years in prison. The case drew extensive international attention, with multiple governments expressing concern over his detention and trial, and press freedom organisations citing it as a landmark case in the decline of Hong Kong's press freedom.