Arriving in Hong Kong as a poor 12-year-old migrant from southern China, Jimmy Lai sought only freedom and a future. At the time, Lai could never have imagined how his life would be forever linked with this former British colony.
“I would rather sink with the ship, because this place gives me everything,” Lai said in an interview about Hong Kong with DW a few months before he was detained in December 2020.
Beijing had said the law would restore Hong Kong “from chaos to order”, after protests against an extradition bill in 2019 turned into mass protests against Beijing encroaching on Hong Kong’s civil liberties.
Since then, the pro-democracy media mogul has spent nearly 2,000 days in solitary confinement in Hong Kong’s maximum-security Stanley Prison.
Lai’s year-long trial ended this February, when the 78-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “collusion with foreign forces.” Although he pleaded not guilty to all charges, his legal team said he would not appeal.
The sentence is the largest ever handed down under the national security law, and Lai’s trial symbolizes to many a serious erosion of press freedom in Hong Kong as part of a broader strategy to suppress voices critical of Beijing.
Jimmy Lai recognized by DW
In honor of protecting the freedom of the press and freedom of expression, DW Jimmy Lai has been awarded With this year’s Freedom of Expression Award.
Since 2015, the DW Freedom of Speech Award has honored journalists and human rights defenders as a way to draw attention to restrictions on press freedom and affecting human rights situations around the world.
“People who fight for freedom, people who fight for the freedom of others, are never alone,” Sebastian Lai, Jimmy Lai’s son and a longtime advocate for his release, told DW. And this is meaningful at a time when “a lot of media in Hong Kong are now self-censoring.”
“I think if he knew about it [the award]He will be very happy,” said Sebastian Lai.
DW Director General Barbara Massing said that with the award, DW is honoring Jimmy Lai’s “indispensable dedication to democratic values”.
“Jimmy Lai has stood up unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong, at great personal risk, even as the space for independent journalism has become increasingly limited. With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and gave voice to the democracy movement in Hong Kong. His commitment reminds us that press freedom is never taken for granted – it must be steadfastly defended.”
From stowaway to media tycoon
Jimmy Lai was born into a wealthy family in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. His life was ruined due to the Chinese Civil War. His father fled, his mother was sent to a labor camp, and his family lost everything.
After tasting a piece of chocolate from Hong Kong at the age of 12 – a rare taste that he believed was from a better world – Lai decided to hide out on a fishing boat headed for the British colony, which was handed back to China in 1997.
Starting from nothing in 1960s Hong Kong, Lai became a textile magnate through the success of his clothing brand, Giordano, founded in 1981. For Lai, at first freedom meant having a living to eat, but once he achieved financial security, he realized that freedom meant something else. The Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing in 1989 became his turning point.
Sebastian Lai said, “When Hong Kong was about to be handed over in 1997, they knew that if China was willing to commit the Tiananmen Square massacre, then there needed to be someone in Hong Kong to campaign for democracy and defend this freedom; someone who had the means and the ability.”
Voice for democracy has been raised in Hong Kong for a long time
When China sent its tanks to suppress the protests at Tiananmen Square, Jimmy Lai publicly supported the pro-democracy students and even wrote an open letter criticizing the Chinese Prime Minister. As a result his business was blacklisted in mainland China. Subsequently, he turned to the media industry and founded Next Magazine and later Apple Daily.
His media outlets became known for their sharp, tabloid-style journalism and later independent reporting exposing scandals and criticizing government policies. Although sometimes criticized for sensationalism and excessive entertainment, he remained extremely popular with the public.
Mark Clifford, chairman of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong and a former Apple Daily board member, described the newspaper to DW as “a crazy mix of investigative reporting, stock market tips, paparazzi scandals and a relentless focus on freedom, the free market and democracy.”
With his publications, Lai became one of Beijing’s most vocal critics. He even joined street protests himself during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and 2019 anti-extradition bill protests.
Following the implementation of the national security law in 2020, Lai was arrested and his Apple Daily operations ceased in 2021. Subsequently, many independent media outlets in Hong Kong have also closed due to reduced space for press freedom.
Last December, the media tycoon, who is a British citizen, was found guilty under the national security law. The court decision described Lai as having a “radical hatred” towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It accused Lai of knowingly leveraging Apple Daily and his personal influence to carry out various campaigns aimed at undermining the legitimacy and authority of both the CCP and the Hong Kong government.
Will Jimmy Lai ever be freed?
“A 20-year sentence is a death sentence,” Sebastian Lai said. His family is very concerned about the 78-year-old’s health behind bars, saying Lai is diabetic, and has lost 10 kilograms in the past year, while also suffering from nail loss and tooth decay.
Sebastian has not seen his father for 5 years and can only keep in touch by mail. He cannot return to Hong Kong due to security reasons. He said it is “painful” to know that “there is a very good possibility.” [Jimmy Lai] “I want him in jail.”
Clifford, who has known Jimmy Lai for more than 30 years, warned that letting Lai die in prison would be a “disaster” for the CCP and that he would become the second high-profile political prisoner to die in Chinese custody, after Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who died of cancer in 2017.
However, the prosecution has cited medical reports claiming Lai’s condition is “stable”. He rejected the allegations regarding Lai’s deteriorating health, arguing that he was placed in solitary confinement at his request for security reasons.
US President Donald Trump, who said in 2025 that he had asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to “consider” releasing Lai, is expected to meet Xi again in Beijing next month.
Sebastian Lai said he hoped Trump might intervene to secure his father’s release given his “incredible track record of getting people out of prison.”
However, he said it was difficult at this time to imagine what would happen if his father was released.
“Even sitting at our dining table cooking something and all the family members eating together. I think that’s what I look forward to the most.”
DW East Asia correspondent Rick Glauert also contributed to this report.