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In mainland China, many see him as a “traitor”, while others in Hong Kong see him as a hero.
In any case, what is clear is that Jimmy Lai is a difficult man to fold.
At 73, this billionaire businessman is one of the most prominent voices in the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, which earned him this Friday. a 14-month prison sentence for his participation in the events that took place there in 2020.
This is not, however, the first nor the most serious problem Lai faces due to his critical stance on Beijing.
The tycoon, who has been detained since February, faces six more charges, two of which stem from Hong Kong’s controversial new national security law – imposed by Beijing and which punishes what he considers subversion and attempts at secession – that they can result in life imprisonment.
In addition, in recent years he has been the subject of a conspiracy to assassinate him and masked men have thrown firebombs at the house and company headquarters.
But none of this has stopped him from defending Hong Kong’s limited freedoms that he sees as threatened by mainland China.
An attitude that he attributes to his own nature. “I was born a rebel. I have a very rebellious character“he said in a BBC interview last year, the last he gave as a free man.
From stowaway to tycoon
Jimmy Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, to a wealthy family who lost everything when the Communists took power in 1949.
Jimmy Lai faces six other charges, some of which could lead to a life sentence.
At 12 years old, I in Hong Kong, where he parked on a fishing boat. She started doing odd jobs, knitting in a clothing store. Over time, he learned English and eventually founded the international clothing brand Giordano.
So, like many of the city’s famous bosses, he managed to make the jump from a low-level job in a maquiladora to founding a multi-million dollar empire. His personal fortune is estimated at $ 1 billion.
Giordano was a great success. But when China sent tanks in 1989 to crush pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, Lai began to transform into an outspoken democracy advocate.
He wrote columns criticizing the massacre that followed the protests in Beijing and established a publishing house that has become one of the most influential in Hong Kong.
Beijing responded by threatening to close stores on the mainland, prompting him to sell the company and at the same time launch a series of popular pro-democracy publications which now include the digital magazine Next and the most widely read Apple Daily newspaper.
Hero or traitor
In a context where local media seem increasingly fearful of Beijing, Lai has not given up on his criticism of the Chinese authorities. This made him a hero to many Hong Kong residents, but on the mainland he is seen as a “traitor” who threatens national security.
For Beijing supporters, Lai is a “traitor”.
When Beijing passed Hong Kong’s new national security law in June 2020, Lai told the BBC the rule meant a “death sentence” for that territory.
He warned that Hong Kong would become as corrupt as China. He said without the rule of law, its status as a global financial center would be “totally destroyed”.
For his fans, Lai is a brave man who took great risks to defend the freedoms of Hong Kong.
“I have enormous respect for Lai. Obviously he is a man of courage and he is probably one of the few who stood up for his business interests without watering down his principles,” one Twitter user wrote after his arrest.
Known for his outspokenness and flamboyant acts, earlier this year the mogul urged then-US President Donald Trump to help Hong Kong, saying he was the only one who could save them from the China.
His newspaper, Apple Daily, ran a front-page letter that read: “Mr. President, help us“.
Pro-democracy activists posting copies of Lai’s “Apple Daily”.
Yet neither his importance nor his fortune protected him from retribution. During his conviction on Friday, the judge said: “The actions have consequences for everyone, no matter who they are.”
Hearing the decision, Lai looked calm. It seems unlikely that the conviction took him by surprise.
But why did he not bow to Beijing?
The answer could be in what he told the BBC last year: “While they can cause fear, this is the cheapest way to control yourself. and the most effective way, and they know it. The only way to beat the path of bullying is to face the fear and not let it scare you, ”he said.
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