Born in mainland China, Jimmy Lye fled as a child, reaching Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat.

At the age of 12, he went to work in a garment factory for $7 a month. By the age of 27 he had purchased his own factory. By his mid-30s he had created

Giordano making it an international brand. Then came the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Mr. Lai sold his

steak in Giordano, founding the pro-democracy Next magazine in 1990 and the Apple Daily again a pro-democracy

outlet in 1995. Since the protests began in Hong Kong this past summer

Mr. Lai has been on the forefront of the movement,

literally on the forefront, marching in one protest after another at the very front where the authorities can see him. Jimmy Lye, welcome.

Thank you. Thank you.

Before we begin our conversation Jimmy would like to read a brief statement.

Thank you.

I'm especially grateful for the invitation to speed at Hoover because this was the

international home of one of my heroes, Mutant Friedman. I once had the honor of taking Milton to China. I had the even greater honor being his friend.

And if he was, if he were alive today, I have no doubt he would be standing in

solidarity with my fellow citizen of Hong Kong, who are just fighting to keep the way of life

promises when we were heading back to China. Today the Trump administration has its own hands full with China.

The disagreements range from human rights, trade, to national security to Hong Kong. Because of its sheer size,

China gets away with behavior the world would never tolerate from any other

country. My simple message tonight is that

bad behavior must be confronted, not at peace and that you in the West need to have confidence in the superiority of your

own system.

China is never embarrassed to assure its own values, even though these values are rude in perhaps

the most horrible Western exports Mexican. America needs to have the same export Mexican

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