HONG KONG — Prominent democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was a child stowaway from mainland China who rose to become Hong Kong’s onetime media magnate. Unlike other rags-to-riches tycoons who cultivated ties with Beijing, he chose to become its fierce critic.
The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, a newspaper known for critical reports against both the Hong Kong and Beijing governments, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for his conviction under a China-imposed national security law.
Here are 10 key moments in Lai’s life showing his evolution from a clothing businessman to one of the city’s best-known pro-democracy activists.
From a child laborer in a glove factory, Lai transformed himself into a clothing entrepreneur, founding the Giordano casual clothing chain in 1981.
But the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing changes Lai’s path. Giordano prints T-shirts in support of the student-led, pro-democracy protests. He becomes interested in the media to disseminate information.
Lai breaks into the media world and sets up Next Magazine with a goal to “participate in delivering freedom.”
“The more you are in the know, the more you are free,” he said in 2024 while giving testimony at his trial.
After then-hardline Chinese Premier Li Peng justified the Tiananmen crackdown, Lai gets mad.
He writes an open letter to call Li “the son of a turtle egg,” a slur in Chinese.
China pressures the Giordano brand, eventually forcing Lai to sell his stake in the company.
Lai launches Apple Daily two years before Hong Kong, then a British colony, is returned to China.
Lai stars in the advertisement for the tabloid-style publication, biting an apple while being targeted by arrows. The commercial ends with the newspaper’s slogan, “an apple a day keeps the liars away.”
Apple Daily is seen by some as a voice for democracy and freedom, drawing a strong following with its sometimes sensational reports and later investigative scoops.
Apple Daily gives out posters in support of a major prot