Prominent democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was a child stowaway from mainland China who rose to become Hong Kong’s onetime media magnate. Unlike other rags-to-riches tycoons who cultivated ties with Beijing, he chose to become its fierce critic.
The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, a newspaper known for critical reports against both the Hong Kong and Beijing governments, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for his conviction under a China-imposed national security law.
Here are 10 key moments in Lai’s life showing his evolution from a clothing businessman to one of the city’s best-known pro-democracy activists.
1989: Tiananmen shifts path of clothing chain founder
From a child laborer in a glove factory, Lai transformed himself into a clothing entrepreneur, founding the Giordano casual clothing chain in 1981.
But the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing changes Lai’s path. Giordano prints T-shirts in support of the…
