From GIORDANO Founder to 'Symbol of Hong Kong Democracy'... Jimmy Lai's Unfinished Fight [Hong Chae-wan's Global Figure]

[Financial News] "Release Jimmy Lai"

In September, protesters' chants rang out outside the White House as the U.S. and Chinese presidents attended a state banquet. Pro-China and anti-China protesters faced off across a police barricade several blocks east of the White House. The anti-China demonstrators demanded the release of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai.
However, neither leader responded when reporters asked about Lai's release. U.S. President Donald Trump later said he had discussed the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but no specific outcome was disclosed. Lai's name echoed outside the glittering diplomatic venue, yet his release remains uncertain.
Lai, now 78, founded clothing brand GIORDANO and the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily. After stowing away from mainland China and beginning his career as a garment-factory worker, he became a successful entrepreneur and later a journalist who criticized the Chinese authorities. Once a self-made man who embodied Hong Kong's economic success, he has now become a symbol of the conflict over the city's freedom and democracy.
Born in Guangdong, China, in 1947, Lai hid aboard a boat and made his way to Hong Kong at the age of 12. He supported himself by working in a clothing factory and taught himself English. After founding GIORDANO in 1981 and expanding the business overseas, he amassed considerable wealth.
The event that changed his life was the bloody crackdown at Tiananmen in 1989. After witnessing Chinese authorities use force to suppress demonstrators demanding democracy, he became actively involved in promoting democracy and press freedom.
He founded the weekly magazine Next Magazine in 1990 and established Apple Daily in 1995, two years before Hong Kong's handover to China. He invested the capital he had accumulated as an entrepreneur in the media business, amplifying criticism of the Chinese authorities. As his political activities led mainland GIORDANO stores to come under pressure from the authorities, he eventually withdrew from the clothing business.
Apple Daily became a major outlet for Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp. Through the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the massive pro-democracy protests in 2019, Lai gained international recognition as one of Hong Kong's most prominent figures opposing the Chinese authorities.
The conflict with the Chinese authorities reached a decisive turning point after Hong Kong's National Security Act came into force in 2020. Lai was arrested that August. Apple Daily struggled to operate amid an investigation by the authorities and the freezing of its assets before publishing its final edition in June 2021.
Lai was charged with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and offenses related to seditious publications. After he pleaded guilty in December last year, a Hong Kong court sentenced him to 20 years in prison in February this year.
For a man of his age, a 20-year sentence could mean spending the rest of his life in prison. Human Rights Watch described the ruling as a serious blow to press freedom in Hong Kong and criticized it as evidence of an effort to suppress independent media and critics of the Chinese Communist Party.
Hong Kong and Chinese authorities, however, maintain that Lai's trial was conducted fairly and that the law applies equally to everyone under the National Security Act. They have also argued that the National Security Act restored order to Hong Kong after the mass protests in 2019.
Concerns about his health have also grown as his imprisonment continues. His family has appealed for leniency, saying that his sentence is effectively a "death sentence" because of his solitary confinement and deteriorating health.
The release of Lai, a British citizen, is also a diplomatic issue between the United Kingdom and China. The British government made his release a priority in 2024, and former Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Xi Jinping to release him when they met in Beijing in January this year.
His successor, Prime Minister Andy Burnham, continued making the same demand. Burnham met President Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September and asked him to raise Lai's case at the U.S.-China summit. The British delegation also conveyed that Lai could live in the United Kingdom if he were released.
Pressure has also continued in the U.S. Congress. Republican Representative Chris Smith and Republican Senator Dan Sullivan introduced a bill in September that would impose sanctions and policy penalties if Hong Kong political prisoners such as Lai were to die.
It remains unclear whether the international demands will lead to his release. President Trump also raised Lai's case when he met Xi Jinping in Beijing in May, but no specific progress on his release was disclosed after their meeting this September.
For the 12-year-old stowaway, Hong Kong was the place where he began a new life. It was also the city that transformed a garment-factory worker into an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur into a journalist. Lai stood up to the Chinese authorities to defend the city's freedom, and he is now in prison. The newspaper he founded has ceased publication, but calls for his release continue around the world, far beyond Hong Kong.

[email protected] Hong Chae-wan Reporter