Published by The Daily Mail (10th February, 2026)
Jimmy Lai is a true hero who should be hailed around the world by anyone who believes in democracy and the fundamental right to speak without fear.
His life story is remarkable: a child who arrived in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing vessel with a dollar in his pocket, he became a billionaire clothing and media magnate, only to be martyred by a dictatorship over his unbowed faith in freedom.
As Lai’s son said, the decision by the Hong Kong court to hand this 78-year-old man a 20-year term in jail is effectively a death sentence, especially given his diabetes and heart problems – and after five years in the hell of solitary confinement. ‘I know he is scared of never seeing his family again and scared of dying alone,’ Sebastien Lai told me on Monday.
As a British citizen, his father could have left Hong Kong and lived out his twilight years in comfort. However, he chose to stay and fight for freedom.
The detention of this ailing old man should shame Beijing.
Sadly, it shames our own nation, too, since a succession of weak governments have kowtowed to China’s goons in the pathetic hope of being handed a few crumbs from their economy, failing to show even a sliver of the courage displayed by Jimmy Lai.
There seems a chilling choreography to the latest capitulation by Sir Keir Starmer, despite his past as a human rights lawyer and China’s arrogant breach of the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ deal agreed with Britain to protect Hong Kong’s freedoms until 2047.
First came the Government’s long-delayed consent last month for a new mega-embassy for China in a pivotal London position beside cables carrying critical financial information. Barely a week later, the Prime Minister flew off to Beijing on a high-profile trip.
And now – a few days after his return – we see the sickening sacrifice of this brave tycoon who fought so hard for the democracy that we claim to espouse.
Lai’s extraordinary life reflects his nation’s history. He was born on the mainland shortly before the 1949 takeover by Mao’s Communists. His businessman father tried to hang himself before his eyes, having lost his wealth, before abandoning the family.
After his mother was sent to a labour camp, Lai worked as a child porter in a railway station. One day, he tasted chocolate for the first time after being given a bar as a tip and, hearing it came from Hong Kong, vowed to reach such a heavenly place.
Arriving in the British enclave aged 12, he was taken to work in a textile factory, weeping when he saw so much food at breakfast and sleeping on the floor.
Although penniless then, he went on to build his own factory and global clothing brand, then moved into the media with his Apple Daily newspaper on the basis that, as he put it: ‘If I am delivering information, I am delivering freedom.’ Lai – reportedly worth $1.2billion when arrested in 2020 – fearlessly used his status and power to push for democracy.
Now his plight symbolises the tragedy of Hong Kong itself as China extinguishes the freedoms that made this place so dynamic and special.
There has been a torrent of hollow protests from some of the same politicians who have sold out democracy as they cuddle up to China’s dictatorship. The Foreign Office whimpers that it will ‘rapidly engage further’ with Beijing over Lai’s case.
Yet as the last governor of Hong Kong Lord Patten rightly said, referring to a small cut in whisky taxes agreed during Starmer’s jaunt: ‘It was a tragedy that the only thing that came out of this trip was Johnnie Walker not Jimmy Lai.’
Politicians insist they always raise Lai’s case in Beijing, although an insider once told me such moments are agreed in advance, then at the pre-arranged time the visitors raise human rights while their hosts pointedly ignore them.
Like the Russian activist Alexei Navalny – who died suspiciously in prison after returning to his country – Jimmy Lai is an inspirational figure with unwavering faith in freedom. ‘I will stay and fight until the last day,’ he said as the noose of repression tightened.
Yet the incarceration of this freedom fighter among killers and rapists in a maximum security prison serves also as a damning symbol of our subservient stance towards a barbaric regime intent on the destruction of our most precious liberties.
British intelligence chiefs have warned for years that China presents the most systemic challenge to our security, prosperity and values. It engages in cyber-terrorism, intimidates dissidents who fled to this country for safety, steals intellectual property and imposes sanctions on MPs that dare criticise its bullying and brutality.
‘We know we are on the right side of history and we’re doing the right thing,’ said Lai before his imprisonment. If only our pitiful politicians shared such determined faith in freedom. Instead, they betray this brave man to kowtow to his captors.