As the Chinese Communist Party upended Hong Kong’s political freedoms with a repressive national-security law last year, international businesses largely stayed put, and the city maintained its reputation as a global financial hub. But the imminent demise of its most prominent pro-democracy newspaper should convince executives to reconsider.
Mark Simon, a top adviser to Apple Daily owner Jimmy Lai, confirmed in an interview with National Review this afternoon that the newspaper’s operations in Hong Kong would likely cease by the end of the week, with its fate likely to be sealed tomorrow. The city’s secretary of security has frozen the paper’s funds, meaning it can no longer pay its approximately 1,000 employees, many of whom could face prosecution for their work.
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