Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, known for his support of the city\u2019s pro-democracy movement and criticism of China\u2019s leaders, turned 76 behind bars in a maximum security prison earlier this month. <\/p>\n
He has been\u00a0in detention since 2020\u00a0and jailed for multiple charges linked to Hong Kong\u2019s democracy protest movement and his media business, as the founder of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy, anti-Beijing newspaper that was forced to shut down in 2021. <\/p>\n
Long an unapologetically pugilistic thorn in Beijing\u2019s side, Lai now faces his most consequential legal challenge to date. <\/p>\n
The trial \u2013 which is expected to last at least 80 days \u2013 is the most high-profile prosecution of a Hong Kong media figure since the city was handed over from British to Chinese control in 1997. And it could set new precedents for Hong Kong\u2019s rapidly changing legal landscape. <\/p>\n
Since huge and sometimes violent democracy protests swept through Hong Kong in 2019, dozens of the city\u2019s most prominent democracy activists have been jailed or have fled overseas. <\/p>\n
But few command the kind of international recognition that Lai does. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege that articles published by Lai\u2019s Apple Daily newspaper violated Hong Kong\u2019s national security law by calling for overseas sanctions against the city\u2019s leaders. Lai has pleaded not guilty. <\/p>\n
Beijing imposed the national security law in the wake of the 2019 protests, arguing it has \u201crestored stability\u201d and closed loopholes that allowed \u201cforeign forces\u201d to undermine China. <\/p>\n
Critics say it has decimated Hong Kong\u2019s freedoms and transformed the city\u2019s legal landscape. <\/p>\n
Like all national security cases so far, the high-profile trial will\u00a0not have a jury and will be presided over by three national security judges from a committee that is approved by Hong Kong\u2019s leader.\u00a0Hong Kong\u2019s government has also blocked Lai from being represented by a British lawyer, a decision which is undergoing a separate legal challenge that has repeatedly delayed this trial\u2019s start date. <\/p>\n
Once one of the city\u2019s most outspoken figures, little has been heard from Lai since his multiple prosecutions began. <\/p>\n
Lai\u2019s son met with Britain\u2019s foreign minister last week to lobby for the release of his father \u2013 who is also a British citizen \u2013 after a round of similar campaigning in the US and Canada. <\/p>\n
Chinese authorities have condemned Western criticism of Lai\u2019s prosecution and ahead of this week\u2019s trial reiterated the\u00a0denunciations they have often employed against the media tycoon. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s public knowledge that Jimmy Lai is one of the most notorious anti-China elements bent on destabilizing Hong Kong and a mastermind of the riots that took place in Hong Kong,\u201d Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters last Wednesday at a regular press briefing. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe blatantly colluded with external forces to undermine China\u2019s national security and is responsible for numerous egregious acts. The Hong Kong (government) took action to hold him accountable in accordance with the law. This is beyond reproach,\u201d Mao added. <\/p>\n
Hong Kong authorities have employed more cautious language, declining to comment on legal proceedings while defending how police and prosecutors have pursued national security prosecutions. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll cases concerning offense endangering national security will be handled in a fair and timely manner,\u201d the spokesperson added. <\/p>\n
Amnesty International\u2019s deputy regional director for China, Sarah Brooks, said the trial \u201cepitomizes the rapid decline of rule of law in Hong Kong.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis case has been an attack on press freedom and freedom of expression from the very start. The Hong Kong authorities must release Jimmy Lai immediately and unconditionally and expunge his criminal convictions. No one should be prosecuted solely for exercising their human rights,\u201d Brooks said in a statement on Friday (Dec 15). <\/p>\n
The Committee to Protect Journalists called the trial \u201ca travesty of justice.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is press freedom and the rule of law that are on trial in Hong Kong,\u201d CPJ\u2019s Asia program coordinator Beh Lih Yi said. <\/p>\n
Lai\u2019s fortunes, both personal and financial, are inextricably tied to the history of modern Hong Kong. <\/p>\n
As the Great Chinese Famine gripped mainland China in 1960, Lai smuggled himself out of the southern province of Guangdong and into the then British colony of Hong Kong in the bottom of a fishing boat. He arrived in the city at the age of 12 and dirt poor. <\/p>\n
Lai said he became an odd jobs man at a textile factory, making 60 Hong Kong dollars ($7) a month and living in an apartment with 10 others in the slum neighborhood of Sham Shui Po \u2013 still one of Hong Kong\u2019s most impoverished districts. <\/p>\n
Within two decades, Lai had learned English, worked his way up the factory floor to the position of salesman and decided to start his own retail line. On one trip to New York during fabric sampling season, he bought a pizza. Written on the napkin was the name Giordano. <\/p>\n
That became the name of his wildly successful, casual men\u2019s clothing chain, which made Lai his first fortune. <\/p>\n
But China\u2019s deadly 1989 crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square politicized Lai and created something of a rarity in Hong Kong: a wealthy tycoon willing to openly criticize Beijing\u2019s leaders. <\/p>\n
He moved out of the clothing business and chose a new role \u2013 media baron. <\/p>\n
Lai founded\u00a0Apple Daily in 1995, two years before Hong Kong was handed over to China. <\/p>\n
Modeled visually on USA Today, the paper caused a minor revolution in the city\u2019s media landscape, sparking a price war and drastically changing how rivals operated as they struggled to keep up with Lai\u2019s flashy tabloid sensibilities. <\/p>\n
While celebrity gossip and other tabloid fare were a mainstay at the paper, it also emerged as one of the fiercest critics of the local government and Beijing, winning awards for its expos\u00e9s on corruption and human rights reporting. <\/p>\n
It was also openly supportive of successive waves of pro-democracy protests that swept through Hong Kong, culminating in the 2019 movement. Lai himself was frequently seen at the marches, in the pouring rain or blazing summer heat, sparking denunciations from China\u2019s state-run media. <\/p>\n
As unrest between protesters and police became increasingly violent, calls from a minority of protesters for Hong Kong independence from mainland China grew \u2013 a red line in the eyes of Beijing authorities, who brandished all pro-democracy calls as a US-backed \u201ccolor revolution,\u201d and described protesters as \u201crioters,\u201d \u201cradicals\u201d and \u201cthugs\u201d. <\/p>\n
A devout Catholic and vocal supporter of former US President Donald Trump, Lai had lobbied extensively overseas for foreign governments to apply pressure on China over Hong Kong. During this period of social unrest, Lai traveled to Washington where\u00a0he met with then Vice President Mike Pence to discuss the political situation in Hong Kong and other leading politicians. <\/p>\n
In the eyes of Beijing, this was seen as colluding with foreign forces to undermine the country\u2019s security. <\/p>\n
US sanctions have\u00a0long infuriated\u00a0Chinese authorities and often\u00a0spark reciprocal measures. During the 2019 protests, Beijing was incensed at Hong Kongers like Lai who openly called for restrictions to be placed on Chinese and Hong Kong officials. State media mouthpiece\u00a0Global Times, for example, described Lai\u2019s meetings with US politicians as \u201cintervention of foreign forces\u201d by a \u201cgroup of traitors,\u201d and vowed to punish such actions. <\/p>\n
The US has\u00a0since sanctioned multiple Hong Kong and Chinese officials\u00a0over Beijing\u2019s ongoing crackdown in the city. <\/p>\n
When Beijing imposed the new national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020, Lai said publicly that he knew he would likely become a target but he vowed to remain in Hong Kong nonetheless. <\/p>\n
Lai was marched out of his own newsroom in August 2020 and arrested by the national security police on suspicion of\u00a0colluding with foreign forces. <\/p>\n
In June the following year hundreds of police officers raided Apple Daily\u2019s headquarters, declaring the newsroom a crime scene under the national security law. <\/p>\n
Officers arrested executives and top news editors, seized journalistic materials and confiscated laptops, computers and mobile phones. <\/p>\n
A week later, Apple Daily printed its final edition. All 1 million copies \u2013 10 times more than its usual print run \u2013 sold out. <\/p>\n
The paper\u2019s closure sent a deep chill through Hong Kong\u2019s media industry. Multiple smaller local outlets critical of Hong Kong\u2019s government also followed Apple Daily in shuttering following police investigations. <\/p>\n
\u201cFreedom of speech and press cannot become a \u2018shield\u2019 for criminal acts, nor can media organizations become a place above the law where they are immune from accountability,\u201d China\u2019s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said a day after Apple Daily closed following the national security raid. <\/p>\n
Hong Kong\u2019s government has also repeatedly denied that the city\u2019s media freedoms have been affected by the law. <\/p>\n
But that is disputed by multiple human rights and media groups. <\/p>\n
In its annual World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders ranks Hong Kong 140 out of 180 countries and territories, down from 18th place two decades ago. Mainland China is ranked at 179. <\/p>\n\n
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, known for his support of the city\u2019s pro-democracy movement and criticism of China\u2019s leaders, turned 76 behind bars in a maximum security prison earlier this month. He has been\u00a0in detention since 2020\u00a0and jailed for multiple charges linked to Hong Kong\u2019s democracy protest movement and his media business, as the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}