On the 15th, a Hong Kong court found anti-China-leaning journalist Jimmy Lai guilty. The court said Lai colluded with foreign groups to seek political and economic collapse and incited discontent against Chinese and Hong Kong authorities through Apple Daily and social media. Some say he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Jimmy Lai is a 78-year-old former billionaire-turned-political activist who is regarded as a symbolic figure of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. According to writer Mark Clifford, a close associate, Lai's fortune was about $1.2 billion (about 176.66 billion won) at the time of his first arrest in 2020. He is one of the few figures in Hong Kong's business community known for actively using his wealth and influence to support anti-authoritarian and pro-democracy movements.
Lai was not born wealthy. Born in 1948 in Guangzhou in southern China, he illegally entered Hong Kong at age 12 by boarding a fishing boat and spent his youth moving between garment factories. In 1981, he founded the global clothing brand Giordano and achieved major success, then established the media corporations Next Digital, earning the nickname "the Rupert Murdoch of Asia."
The turning point for Lai's openly anti-China path was the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing. Troubled by the military's bloody suppression, Lai launched the online weekly Next Magazine the following year and founded Apple Daily in 1995, devoting himself to the news business. These outlets were seen as unabashedly pro-democracy, and Lai in particular used his columns to sharply criticize former Premier Li Peng as "a bastard with an IQ of zero."
Afterward, under Lai's leadership, Apple Daily aligned itself with major pro-democracy movements. It donated millions of dollars to the protests against the National Security Act in 2003, the 2014 Umbrella Revolution demanding direct elections for the Hong Kong chief executive, and the 2019 demonstrations against the extradition bill, and Lai himself lent support by joining the protests in person. In 2019, Lai ran an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump on the front page of Apple Daily, appealing for international intervention, which was later used as key evidence to substantiate allegations of collusion with foreign forces.
Lai's activities were sharply curtailed after Hong Kong's National Security Act took effect in June 2020. Two months after the law's implementation, in August, police raided Apple Daily's headquarters, conducted searches and seizures, and arrested Lai, his two sons, and executives in succession. Ultimately, in 2021, Apple Daily and Next Magazine proceeded with voluntary shutdowns, and the final issue of Apple Daily, published on June 24, sold out all 1 million copies.
After Lai's conviction, calls for his release grew in the international community. U.S. President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider releasing Lai immediately after the verdict, and the European Union (EU) also urged his immediate and unconditional release in a statement. The U.K. Foreign Office likewise said on X (formerly Twitter) that it "condemns the prosecution and conviction of Lai." China's position is that "no one should interfere in any form in Hong Kong's judiciary or China's internal affairs."