Updated Dec 14, 2025 - Business

Hong Kong convicts media tycoon Jimmy Lai in national security trial

Rebecca Falconer

A short, dark graying haired Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, wearing a green face mask, looks to his right as he's escorted into a Hong Kong Correctional Services van outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong on February 1, 2021. — Media tycoon Jimmy Lai is escorted into a Hong Kong Correctional Services van outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong in 2021. Photo: STR/AFP via Getty Images

A Hong Kong court found pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty of sedition and colluding with foreign forces in a landmark national security trial on Monday morning local time.

The big picture: The founder of Hong Kong's now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and critic of China's ruling Communist Party was charged in 2020 after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the Asian financial hub in response to pro-democracy protests a year earlier.

Lai has been detained since 2020 and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison after a three-judge panel convicted him on charges of colluding with foreign forces and sedition.

What we're watching: President Trump has said he'll do "everything" he can "to save" Lai and pledged to raise the plight of the 78-year-old British citizen at his October meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, a U.S.-registered nonprofit established in response to Beijing's national security crackdown, in a statement called the charges "trumped-up" and urged the Trump administration to "immediately impose measures" to hold Hong Kong and Chinese officials "accountable."
Representatives for the White House and State Department did not immediately respond to Axios' Sunday evening request for comment.

Flashback: Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai convicted of fraud

Editor's note: This article has been updated with additional details throughout.

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Hong Kong convicts media tycoon Jimmy Lai in national security trial

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