Jimmy Lai turns 76 next week. The entrepreneur and founder of the now-defunct, regime-torquing Apple Daily will spend his birthday as he has spent the last hundreds of days and nights: in a Chinese jail awaiting trial. That is scheduled for December 13.The man embodying dissent and the fight for freedom in Hong Kong — a distinction shared with the aged Cardinal Joseph Zen, recently convicted of failing to file proper paperwork for an organization supporting the island’s protests — has been charged with violating the regime’s national security law.
Long before he joined the millions-strong Hong Kong street protests that captivated global audiences before Covid came down, Lai became known in American circles courtesy of the Acton Institute, with whom he shared a passion for free markets and all-around freedom.
Earlier this year, Acton released a powerful documentary, The Hong Konger, about Lai, his passion for freedom, and his public courage in confronting the Communist government, which broke its treaty promise to allow Hong Kong a half century of continued autonomy after the British colony was (stupidly!) returned to Chinese control in 1997.
Jack Wolfsohn, a former National Review intern, reported that the film “sends a vital message about the importance of preserving liberty and fighting tyranny.” It does indeed. With Lai’s trial looming, it’s timely that conservatives get to know better and be inspired by this true freedom-fighter. Like Shelby and Eli Steele’s What Killed Michael Brown?, The Hong Konger is as much a work of persuasion as it is a rare documentary that speaks colossal truth to leftist power. Watch the trailer:
