Jimmy Lai
Lai Chee-ying, also known as Jimmy Lai, is a British-Hong Kong businessman and politician. He founded Giordano, an Asian clothing retailer, Next Digital, a Hong Kong-listed media company, and the popular newspaper Apple Daily. He is one of the main contributors to Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp, especially to the Democratic Party. Although he is known as a Hong Kong political figure, he has been a British National since 1996. Lai is also an art collector.
A prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party who met with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Advisor John Bolton during the Hong Kong protests of 2019–2020, Lai was arrested on 10 August 2020 by the Hong Kong police on charges of violating the territory's new national security law, an action which prompted widespread criticism. Lai was allowed bail on 12 August, but on 3 December, Lai was accused of fraud and his bail was revoked. The court decided to jail Lai until April 2021, marking the first time Lai has been detained. Lai regarded his imprisonment as "the summit of his own life".
In 2020, Lai was awarded the "Freedom of Press Award" by Reporters Without Borders for his role in founding Apple Daily, a news outlet under Lai's pro-democracy 3leadership that "still dares to openly criticise the Chinese regime and which widely covered last year's pro-democracy protests." That same month, Lai resigned from his roles with Next Digital as director and chairman of the board.
In April 2021, he was sentenced to an additional 14 months in prison for organising illegal protests. As of September 2025, Lai remains imprisoned in solitary confinement at Hong Kong's Stanley Prison. A motion for an appeal was rejected in August 2024. He was found guilty in December 2025.
Early life
Lai was born in Canton, China, on 8 December 1947 to a wealthy business family right before the Communist Party assumed power in the country. At the age of 12, he entered Hong Kong as a stowaway on a boat. Upon his arrival, Lai began work as a child labourer in a garment factory for a wage of the equivalent of US$8 per month.Business career
Giordano
Lai's factory work saw him rise to the position of factory manager. In 1975, Lai used his year-end bonus on Hong Kong stocks to raise cash and bought a bankrupt garment factory, Comitex, where he began producing and exporting sweaters. Customers included J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, and other U.S. retailers.In 1981, Lai founded Asian clothing retailer Giordano. By rewarding sellers with financial incentives in Hong Kong, he built the chain into an Asia-wide retailer. Giordano was said to have more than 8,000 employees in 2,400 shops in 30 countries.
In 1996, Lai sold his stake in Giordano, leaving the garment industry for media and politics, keeping Comitex active as a shell company. After his arrest under National Security Law in August 2020, Lai tried to sell his asset in Hong Kong, including the entire floor of Tai Ping Industrial Centre. Comitex, along with other private companies controlled by Lai, was reported to be the financial tools for his political activities and donations.
Other companies
In 1997 Lai put up the capital for his twin sister, Si Wai, to acquire numerous properties in the Southern Ontario wine and vacation region of Niagara-on-the-Lake. The Lais Group of Companies now owns additional properties in Caledon and Jordan, both in Ontario. Lai remains the owner despite his arrest.During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, Lai started an Internet-based grocery retailer that offered home delivery services, adMart. The business expanded its product scope beyond groceries to include electronics and office supplies, but was shut down after losing between $100 and $150 million. Lai attributed this business failure to overconfidence and a lack of viable business strategy.
In 2011, Next Media reportedly sold 70 per cent stake of Next Media's subsidiary Colored World Holdings to Sum Tat Ventures, a private company 100 per cent owned by Jimmy Lai. CWH was estimated to have net asset value of US$6.1 million. STV paid US$100 million in cash for 70 per cent stake of CWH. In 2013, STV paid another US$20 million for the remaining 30 per cent stake of CWH. CWH itself had its assets sold in 2011, and ceased operation in 2011. In total, STV paid US$120 million in cash for CWH. On Lai's Form 3B disclosure form, STV is listed as having the same correspondence address as Next Media in Hong Kong.
Near the end of 2013, Lai spent approximately US$73 million to purchase a 2 per cent stake in Taiwanese electronics manufacturer HTC.
Activities in Myanmar
In 2014, leaked documents showed Jimmy Lai paid former US deputy defence secretary and former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz US$75,000 for his help with projects in Myanmar. Lai also reportedly remitted approximately US$213,000 to businessman Phone Win, with whom Lai's Hong Kong-registered Best Combo company reportedly collaborated on Yangon real estate projects.Media career
Lai pioneered a reader-centric philosophy with paparazzi journalism in Hong Kong based on publications such as USA Today and The Sun. His best-selling Next Magazine and Apple Daily newspaper featured a mix of racy tabloid material and news items oriented to the mass market with plenty of colour and graphics that attracted a wide range of readers, some of whom were also critics of Lai and his ideology.Hong Kong publications
Owing to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Lai became an advocate of democracy and critic of the People's Republic of China government. In 1990, he began publishing Next Magazine, which combined tabloid sensationalism with hard-hitting political and business reporting. He proceeded to found other magazines, including Sudden Weekly, Eat & Travel Weekly, Trading Express/Auto Express and the youth-oriented Easy Finder.In 1995, as the Hong Kong handover approached, Lai founded Apple Daily, a newspaper start-up that he financed with $100 million of his own money. The newspaper's circulation rose to 400,000 copies by 1997, which was the territory's second largest among 60 other newspapers. According to Lai, he aspired to maintain freedom of speech in Hong Kong through Apple Daily. In addition to promoting democracy, Lai's publications often ruffled feathers of fellow Hong Kong tycoons by exposing their personal foibles and relations with local government.
In 2003, ahead of the record-breaking pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong during July, the cover of Next Magazine featured a photo-montage of the territory's embattled chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa taking a pie in the face. The magazine urged readers to take to the streets while Apple Daily distributed stickers calling for Tung to resign.
In 2006, Sudden Weekly and Next Magazine ranked first and second in circulation for Hong Kong's magazine market. Apple Daily became the No. 2 newspaper in Hong Kong.
In 2020, Lai launched an English version of Apple Daily.
Taiwan publications
Lai launched Taiwanese editions of Next Magazine in 2001 and Apple Daily in 2003, taking on heavily established rivals who made considerable effort to thwart him. Rival publishers pressed advertisers to boycott and distributors not to undertake home delivery. His Taiwan offices were vandalised on numerous occasions. As the publications grew to have the largest readership in their category, the advertising boycotts ended.In October 2006, Lai launched Sharp Daily, a free daily newspaper targeting Taipei commuters. The company also launched Me! Magazine in Taiwan.
In building Taiwan's most popular newspaper, Apple Daily, and magazine, Next Magazine, Lai's racy publications were described as having a great impact on the country's hitherto staid media culture.
Publication challenges
Lai's publications remained banned in China since their inception. The ban originated from Lai's 1994 newspaper column, where he told Premier of the PRC Li Peng, seen as a driving force behind the Tiananmen Square crackdown, to "drop dead". He also called the Chinese Communist Party "a monopoly that charges a premium for lousy service". China's government retaliated against Lai by starting a shutdown of Giordano shops, prompting him to sell out of the company to save it. In addition to having his publications banned in China, businesses had distanced themselves from placing advertisements in Apple Daily to avoid retaliation from the Chinese government.Lai had frequently faced hostility from the many Beijing-backed tycoons, including attempts to force supplier boycotts of his companies. Major Hong Kong property developers and top companies advertised only in competing publications not owned by Lai. He also faced a lengthy battle to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which Lai sidestepped through a reverse takeover. He managed to list the company in 1999 by acquiring Paramount Publishing Group in October of that year.
In 2020, Apple Daily published a falsehood-ridden 64-page report produced by Typhoon Investigations alleging Joe Biden's son Hunter had a "problematic" connection with the Chinese Communist Party, which was widely cited by far-right influencers such as Steve Bannon. An NBC News report linked the Typhoon Investigations to a fake "intelligence firm" and claimed that the author of the document, a self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, was a "fabricated identity". The original poster of the document, Christopher Balding, admitted that he wrote parts of the document and later stated that the document had been commissioned by Apple Daily. Lai later said that he had personally "nothing to do with" the report, but he admitted his senior executive, Mark Simon, had "worked with the project". Simon resigned following the NBC report and apologised for having "allowed damage to Jimmy on a matter he was completely in the dark on". The report was among many incidents many US democracy experts believe was instrumental in the cause of the 2021 Capitol attack there. Lai admitted on 25 November 2024 that he told Cheung Kim-hung about featuring more negative news in an English edition of Apple Daily, which was launched in May 2020, about a month before the enactment of the Beijing-imposed security law.