Everyone in the global fight for liberty has some item that cultivated his intellectual palate. For Chinese dissident Jimmy Lai, it was a candy bar. As an eight-year-old boy, he worked as a baggage carrier in a railway station in his native mainland China. After he carried the bag of a visitor from Hong Kong, the man gave the future billionaire a piece of chocolate. “It was amazing,” he says. Eating that delectable sweet made him believe “Hong Kong must be Heaven, because I’ve never tasted anything like that.” One bite of that confection gave him a taste for freedom. At the age of 12, he...
Overview
At the age of 13, Jimmy Lai escaped China to experience freedom in Hong Kong and grew to be one of Hong Kong’s highest-profile media moguls. Through his work, Lai founded the anti-Beijing newspaper Apple Daily and became an outspoken critic of the People’s Republic of China, solidifying him as one of Hong Kong’s most important pro-democracy voices.
In this exclusive interview, Acton’s President and Co-founder Rev. Robert Sirico speaks with Lai about his entrepreneurial work and his bravery in the face of persecution at the hands of China’s Communist Party.
