The New Statesman.

Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong's most famous media tycoon and a British citizen, could be sentenced to life in prison.

What does his case say about the political climate in Hong Kong and how might it affect relations between the East and the West?

I'm Olly D Dougmore. This is the

New Statesman podcast. Joining me today is Katie Stallard, our senior editor specialising in China

and global affairs. Thanks for joining us, Katie. Happy to be with you. For listeners who might not

know, who is Jimmy Lai? So he is often compared to Rupert Murdoch. He's sometimes been

described as the Rupert Murdoch of Asia. And I think

aspects of that are fair. So he has an absolutely fascinating personal story. He grew up in

abject poverty in mainland China, stowed away on a fishing boat at the age of 12 to make his way

to Hong Kong, worked in a glove factory, started his own clothing business,

and worked his way up to become a millionaire and ultimately a billionaire.

Where he became interested in democracy, activism, and media, was after the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing in 1989.

So that was when the Chinese government ordered the military to fire on student protesters

in and around Tiananmen Square.

Jimmy Lai printed T-shirts to raise awareness of what was happening there.

And he got very interested in the control of information and the control of information. printed t-shirts to raise awareness of what was happening there.

And he got very interested in the control of information and the control of media.

Started his own media company and then what became his famous newspaper, Apple Daily, in 1995.

Where I think the comparison with Rupert Murdoch is fairly opposite is Apple Daily is,

was rather, it closed in 2021, absolutely unapologetic sensationalist tabloid.

So it is where you would see like really lurid headlines about celebrity scandals, political intrigue, but it also became then very supportive of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong,

...