There was once a time when the names of political prisoners—people like Nelson Mandela, Andrei Sakharov, and Václav Havel—were known to all Americans. Jimmy Lai, who currently languishes in a Hong Kong prison, stands among these giants. His name should be known to every person who believes in freedom.
Lai, now 77, is perhaps today’s most outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party. For more than three decades, until its bank accounts were frozen in 2021, he ran the pro-democracy paper he founded, Apple Daily.
Lai is a self-made billionaire. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over Hong Kong in 1997, he had more than the means and the connections to flee—many other CCP critics understandably did just that. But he stayed, unable to abandon his lifelong pursuit of freedom. “I called my people to fight,” he said in 2020. “They look at me. I can’t let them down.”
He knew this choice meant the worst could come. That’s exactly what happened.
