A Christmas Prayer for Jimmy Lai
Hong Kong's champion of freedom and democracy is facing life in prison, but his heart and soul remain free this holiday season.
By Michael Judge
Seeing Jimmy Lai in shackles entering a Hong Kong courtroom this week was a shock for me on a personal level. I’d gotten to know the Hong Kong media mogul and founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily in the late 1990s when I worked in The Wall Street Journal’s Hong Kong bureau. He was, pardon the cliché, larger than life—a bear of a man with a gentle spirit whose passion for democracy was equaled only by his commitment to freedom of expression.
He was also a self-made man, unlike many mainland millionaires who owe their fortunes to Chinese Communist Party connections. At the age of 12, Jimmy stowed away on a ship headed from the mainland to Hong Kong and went to work in the garment industry. A brilliant apprentice, he moved up the ranks, became a manager, owner, and eventually the CEO and president of a multinational clothing and retail e…
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