July 06, 2023
Jimmy Lai Source: Wikimedia Commons Today, while we celebrate the work of America’s creators, I honor a living flexibility fighter: billionaire business owner Jimmy Lai.
When Communist China squashed liberty in Hong Kong, Lai might have gone throughout the world and lived a life of high-end. However he picked to remain in Hong Kong and go to prison.
A brand-new documentary, “The Hong Konger,” informs his story.
Lai matured in hardship in China.
“My mom was (put behind bars) in a labor camp,” he remembers. “We were just 5 or 6 and handling ourselves without an adult in the family. When I was 8 and 9, I operated in the railway station carrying individuals’s baggage.”
There he discovered a little British-controlled island near China called Hong Kong, where individuals were less bad. So he went there “in the bottom of a fishing junk, together with perhaps 100, possibly 80, individuals, and everybody throwing up.”
When in Hong Kong, he was astonished at how numerous food was. “I never saw a lot of things for breakfast. I was so moved. I was weeping.”
He got a job in a sweatshop. “We had to get up before 7 and worked until 10 p.m. However it was an extremely happy time … a time that I understand I had a future.”
The opportunity to have a future makes such a distinction.
“The chance to have a future makes such a difference.”
At the time, Hong Kong was an uncommonly totally free country. Police imposed law and order, however otherwise, the British rulers left individuals alone. That permitted people to prosper.
“The British offered us the organizations of liberty,” states Lai. “Rule of law, totally free speech, the free market … That developed the best worldwide. That was really informing for me.”
Lai eventually saved sufficient money to begin a clothing organization. “I started a really little factory. Ultimately we turned into one of the greatest sweatshirt factories in Hong Kong.” Gradually, his clothes business, Giordano, made him abundant.
Lai assumed that the Communist Chinese, seeing the prosperity in Hong Kong, would leave the island alone. After all, even the Communists were embracing some commercialism.
“I thought China is going to be altered,” states Lai. “China is going to be like Western nation that I’ve been to. I was extremely excited.”
However then came the Tiananmen Square massacre. That inspired Lai to start a media business. Media are important, he stated, since they provide information, “which is choice, and option is freedom.”
Lai’s media service grew. He covered Chinese government abuses when other Hong Kong media would not. “Everybody was so chickened out, so scared. They went into self-censorship to prevent angering the Communists.”
Even foreign financiers kept peaceful to secure their investments in China.
Then, in 2020, China passed a “nationwide security” law that stated it illegal for Hong Kongers to criticize the Chinese federal government.
“It ended up being impossible for media to endure!” complained Lai. “Whatever we state can be sedition.”
A conviction for sedition would suggest prison time, 3 years to life.
But Lai kept his paper open.
“If we just surrender,” he said, “We will lose the rule of law. Lose the liberty. We will lose whatever.”
Hong Kong did lose its freedom, but Lai still refused to leave. “I came here without anything. … I owe flexibility my life. … Don’t think about the effects. Do what is right.”
For releasing the fact about the Communist federal government, Lai was detained and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Chinese officials say they may add more years.
Still, Lai says he doesn’t regret his choice to remain.
“It would be so dull simply being an entrepreneur. I want to make my life more significant and interesting. That’s why I entered into the difficulty I entered today. And I’m happy to have it.”
Happy?
Jimmy Lai is an exceptional male, and a hero of flexibility.
You can watch the entire documentary about him at FreeJimmyLai.com.