Who is Jimmy Lai? In this exclusive interview, Kelly Sadler, the commentary editor at The Washington Times, is joined by Sebastien Lai and Mark Simon. Sebastien is the son of Jimmy Lai, founder of the Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper “Apple Daily,” now being held as a political prisoner.
[SADLER] Could you just describe your father’s plight, what happened to him, and where things stand today? Because this trial just ended.
[LAI] My father landed in Hong Kong from communist China when he was 12 as a child stowaway. As he tells it, he became in love with the freedoms because in Hong Kong, even though he had nothing when he landed, he knew that he had hope, he had a future. He then became incredibly successful in business, in textile manufacturing and then in clothing retail. But in 1989 came the Tiananmen Square massacre. And my father was completely heartbroken. When the pro-democracy protests were happening, he was very supportive. And so he knew that, as China was liberating economically, that it wasn’t going to liberate…
[SADLER] Socially.
[LAI] Socially, exactly. And he knew the implications for Hong Kong, his adoptive home. So he felt a need to start a newspaper to defend these freedoms in Hong Kong and to campaign for democracy in Hong Kong. So he founded Apple Daily. He founded Apple Daily, and the idea was with information, there’s choice; and with choice, there’s freedom. And Apple Daily became the most successful newspaper in Hong Kong. It was the largest media group, and that’s what him and his employees did for the next 25 years, you know, spoke truth to power. And then the 2019 protests happened. My father went out and campaigned for democracy during the protests. And then the National Security Law came. And with the National Security Law, the Hong Kong government decided to weaponize our legal system against these pro-democracy protests. You know, everybody told my father to leave. They told him that he was going to be one of the people that they were going to target.
But he knew that by leaving, not only would he be leaving his principles behind, but more practically he’d be leaving his employees behind.
[SADLER] Hong Kong had a special carve-out from China. It was always considered one China, one country, two rules of law, basically. In China, the mainland was controlled by the CCP, the authoritarian aspects of that. There’s never been freedom of press. There’s really not been a lot of foreign direct investment in the mainland. But Hong Kong was a place that was British ruled, was democratic, and allowed a lot of companies to come in, and as an entry point into China. But that all changed in 2019. And you saw the authoritarian hand of the CCP try to, it took control of Hong Kong.
[LAI] Hong Kong was, it was one country, two systems. Hong Kong never really had democracy, but it had a lot of the things that people would associate with democracy.
[SADLER] Western values.
[LAI] Western values, exactly. So the free press, the rule of law. And when the National Security Law passed, it was an internationally decried law, incredibly draconian, but essentially it meant that if the authorities didn’t like you, they would find reasons to arrest you. So my father was arrested. They sent hundreds of police officers to raid his newsrooms. So if you type in “Apple Daily Raid,” you’d see 500 police officers going into the biggest newspaper in Hong Kong and raiding it and arresting a few of his colleagues.
[SADLER] Essentially shutting it down?
[LAI] Essentially shutting it down, yes.
[SADLER] How long has your dad been in prison for?
[LAI] My father has been in prison since the end of 2020. He’s held in solitary confinement and has been the entire time. And at seventy-seven, he’s soon to be seventy-eight, we’re incredibly worried.
Watch the video for the full conversation.
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