For Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong symbolised freedom. Arriving in the city as a stowaway on a fishing boat at age 12, he went on to find work in a garment factory before building a fortune as a successful businessman and founding the popular pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily.
Now, after nearly five years in prison following Beijing’s imposition of a draconian national security law, Lai’s spirit may not have been broken, but the 77-year-old British citizen and publisher is in poor health, and the risk of his dying in prison, in the place that once represented liberty, is real. If he does, Britain’s shameful inaction will mean it is in part responsible.
