Apple Daily newspaper founder Jimmy Lai has been in prison for several years. While the newspaper had to close two years ago, his son, Sebastien, is trying to warn about Chinese authoritarianism in Hong Kong.
Two years ago, the newspaper Apple Daily disappeared in Hong Kong. Since then, its founder has been in prison. Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced in December 2021 to five years and nine months for fraud. Aged 75, he is yet to be tried soon for “collusion with foreign forces“, a violation of the national security law imposed by Beijing, which is punishable by life imprisonment.
>> Tiananmen anniversary: several people arrested in Hong Kong, including a pro-democracy figure
I’Apple Daily est a newspaper born on June 20, 1995, two years before the handover of Hong Kong by the British. In tabloid form, it is above all the first militant Hong Kong newspaper. Everyone agrees to talk about a political trial for Jimmy Lai. This billionaire, figurehead of press freedom in Hong Kong, has long been openly critical of Beijing. For years his journal, theApple Daily scratched the Chinese power, before being forced to close in 2021, after a freeze of its funds and the arrest of some of its executives.
A personality that has character
Jimmy Lai fled communist China at the age of 12, his family already being persecuted by the communist regime. He takes refuge in Hong Kong and starts working very early for eight Hong Kong dollars a month. He will become a billionaire, at the head of a press empire, the Mext Media group. He has British but also Taiwanese nationality.
He is above all a man of his word who refuses to see Hong Kong sink after the Chinese takeover. He demonstrates for the memory of the victims of Tiananmen Square, but above all he proves to be the best leader of the pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong.
A committed son
Jimmy Lai pays dearly for his activism, since he is now in prison, but his family is not free and continues the fight from a distance. His son, Sebastian Lai, was in Paris this week with the help of the NGO Reporter sans frontières. A visit that telescopes with that of Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, also in France to participate in the summit for a new global financial pact.
Sebastian Lai was in Paris to support his father and ask that we not forget Hong Kong. He recalled in particular that the best way to put pressure on the Chinese dictatorship is to aim for the wallet, to no longer buy “made in china”.
He also asks Westerners not to invest in Hong Kong, because according to him, it is no longer a stable financial center. Especially since Hong Kong has 1,500 political prisoners, including his father. Twenty five years after Beijing’s promise to make “one country, two systems”, it has not been held for the political opponent.