Hong Kong’s pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has reached the end of his national security trial, with a verdict due on Monday for his charges of sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces.
Hailed by some as a hero and scorned by others as a traitor, the 78-year-old is the most prominent person charged under the controversial national security law which China introduced in 2020, in response to massive protests which erupted in Hong Kong the year before.
The law criminalises anything Beijing deems to be subversive or secessionist, from chanting slogans to participating in pro-democracy protests. Beijing says it is necessary to maintain stability in Hong Kong but critics say it has effectively outlawed dissent.
Lai has been detained since December 2020 and it’s unclear how much longer he might remain in jail. His sentencing will come at a later date and he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Hong Kong says Lai has been given a fair trial under the rule of law, but critics say his case shows how the city’s legal system has been used to silence political opposition.
His family has voiced concerns about his deteriorating health in detention. This August, his son Sebastien told the BBC that even if his father – a British citizen – got just five years in prison, it was “practically the same as a death penalty.”
Mr Lai became one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure advocating democracy in the former British territory.
“I’m a born rebel,” he told the BBC in an interview in 2020, hours before he was charged. “I have a very rebellious character.”
Rags to riches
Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, to a wealthy family that lost everything when the communists took power in 1949.
He was 12 years old when he fled his village in mainland China, arriving in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat.
While working odd jobs and knitting in a small clothing shop he taught himself English. He went from a menial role to eventually founding a multi-million dollar empire including the international clothing brand Giordano.
The chain was a huge success. But when China sent in tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, Lai began a new journey as a vocal democracy activist as well as an entrepreneur.
He started writing columns criticising the massacre that followed the demonstrations in Beijing and established a publishing house that went on to become one of Hong Kong’s most influential.
As China responded by threatening to shut his stores on the mainland, leading him to sell the company, Lai launched a string of popular pro-democracy titles that included Next, a digital magazine, and the widely read Apple Daily newspaper.
In a local media landscape increasingly fearful of Beijing, Lai had been a persistent critic of Chinese authorities both through his publications and writing.
This has seen him become a hero for many in Hong Kong, who view him as a man of courage who took great risks to defend the freedoms of the city.
But on the mainland he is viewed as a “traitor” who threatens Chinese national security.
In recent years, masked attackers firebombed Lai’s house and company headquarters. He was also the target of an assassination plot.
But none of the threats stopped him from airing his views robustly. He was a prominent part of the city’s pro-democracy demonstrations and was arrested twice in 2021 on illegal assembly charges.
When China passed Hong Kong’s new national security law in June 2020, Lai told the BBC it sounded the “death knell” for the territory.
The media mogul is known for his frankness and acts of flamboyance.
In 2021, he urged Donald Trump to help the territory, saying he was “the only one who can save us” from China. His newspaper, Apple Daily, published a front-page letter that finished: “Mr President, please help us.”
For Lai, such acts were necessary to defend the city which had taken him in and fuelled his success.
He once told news agency AFP: “I came here with nothing, the freedom of this place has given me everything… Maybe it’s time I paid back for that freedom by fighting for it.”
Lai has been slapped with various charges – including unauthorised assembly and fraud – since 2020.
The prosecution of Lai has captured international attention, with rights groups and foreign governments urging his release.
Over the years, Sebastien Lai has travelled the world to denounce his father’s arrest and condemn Hong Kong for punishing “characteristics that should be celebrated”.
“My father is in jail for the truth on his lips, courage in his heart, and freedom in his soul,” he had said.
By BBC News
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