Hong Kong’s Imprisoned Jimmy Lai and ‘Choosing a Life of Freedom’

Bethany Moy on January 8, 2025

The Troublemaker
How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic
By Mark L. Clifford
Simon & Schuster, 2024. 264 pages.

“He has such a love for his life. He never gave up—he was so optimistic. He still believed in hope. What an inspiration this guy is,” Jimmy Lai speaking at a memorial for his friend of 39 years, Glynn Manson in 2015. (pg 225)

A similar sentiment could be expressed about jailed Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai who, from his childhood, dreamed of a Hong Kong that embodied freedom and has fought to make these dreams a reality. Charged with national security offenses, he is currently on trial.

Author Mark Clifford met Lai in 1993 and served on the board of Next Digital from 2018-2021, when the company was forced to shut down by Hong Kong authorities. Clifford serves as president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong which “seeks to free all of Hong Kong’s political prisoners, including Lai.” (pg 8)

Through his friendship with Lai across three decades, Clifford tells the story of Lai from childhood to being among the most prominent political prisoners in all of China. Clifford provides a chronology of the events occurring in Hong Kong with Lai’s birth in mainland China through the beginning of his trial in 2023. Broadly explaining the history of Hong Kong under British rule and the eventual handover to China in 1997, Clifford establishes the context for events to follow.

A businessman with an entrepreneurial mindset, Lai is distinct from most other political prisoners, neither affiliated with a political party nor seeking political power. He emphasizes faith in markets, believing in the importance of economic growth and in promoting freedom. Most importantly, all of his solutions center upon freedom, democracy, and less government regulation. He believes that true security proceeds from more freedom, tolerance, and the rule of law to protect people. (pg 4)

Clifford articulates Lai’s desires and entrepreneur mentality through the founding of the magazine Next and newspaper Apple Daily. It presented cartoons, local news, gossip, and opposing views to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

For Lai, nothing was off limits when it came to advocating for democracy through his newspaper. Popularity of Apple Daily grew via physical newspapers and online. An Apple Daily Taiwan started in 2003.

“Lai urged his reporters to cover daily life rather than politics or policy that had no emotional appeal for readers.” (pg 138).

Since Apple Daily focused on local news, the CCP was, at the time, largely unconcerned. Lai was willing to take risks when it came to expanding his media company to both television and video content. Sometimes the risks did not pay off, but Apple Daily and Next Digital (the publication’s parent media company) grew immensely by creating a product that consumers wanted and which later fueled mounting CCP concern over its popularity. It came to an end in June 2021; Apple Daily printed its final edition after their bank accounts were frozen, without a court order, under China’s new National Security Law.

After Hong Kong imposed the National Security Law in mid-2020, Lai knew that would be a target if he stayed. He could have departed Hong Kong for any of his homes across the world and yet, he chose to remain and doubled down on his beliefs.

“He preferred to go to jail for freedom and democracy rather than abandon the city that, he says, “gave me everything,” Clifford writes. (pg 6)

Lai’s Roman Catholic faith is another prominent theme in the book. His wife, Teresa, watched as his conversion to Catholicism unfolded.

“My faith gave me such a certainty,” Lai says. “Faith makes so many other things so clear. This is something wonderful.” (pg 104)

Father Robert Sirico said that when he first met Lai he had the enthusiasm of a recent convert, “You cannot break a man who is not concerned about money or about freedom.” (pg 216)

Clifford writes, “Lai and [retired Hong Kong] Cardinal Zen once agreed that it would be ‘wonderful’ to die in prison for their beliefs.” (pg 216). They understand where true freedom comes from through Christ. While in prison Lai has used his time to study Catholic theology which has brought him in closer communion with God. This has brought him a new purpose in life and a sense of peace despite being in prison. “The Chinese Communist Party will decide whether he dies in prison or enjoys his last years with his family. Lai has no say in that decision. But whether in prison or outside it, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has chosen a life of freedom” (pg 217).

“Lai’s belief in the power and strength of the idea of freedom ruled by law, coupled with his Catholic faith, gives him the strength to endure for far longer than he expected would be necessary.” (pg 116).

More from IRD:

Jimmy Lai and the Plight of Hong Kong Christians

Congressman Frank Wolf on the Importance of Religious Liberty

Hong Kong’s Jailed Hero

  1. Comment by David Gingrich on January 15, 2025 at 8:30 am

    The Chinese Communist Party is the enemy of free people everywhere.

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