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Reporting from Hong Kong

A Hong Kong court handed down a guilty verdict on Monday in the landmark national security trial of Jimmy Lai, a media tycoon and pro-democracy activist whose case highlights shrinking tolerance for dissent in the city.

Officials in Hong Kong and mainland China had cast Mr. Lai, 78, as the mastermind of antigovernment demonstrations that engulfed the former British colony in 2019, posing a serious challenge to Beijing’s authority. Prosecutors said he colluded with foreign governments, including the United States, to target China and Hong Kong with sanctions.

Mr. Lai pleaded not guilty to two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces,” an offense that can be punished by up to life in prison, and not guilty to a count of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily, the now-shuttered Chinese-language newspaper he founded in 1995. On Monday, a court found him guilty on all three counts.

Hong Kong’s “one country two systems” legal framework is meant to guarantee the territory some autonomy from Beijing and freedom of speech until 2047. But critics say the case shows how the framework has been undercut by two national security laws — one imposed by Beijing in 2020, the other introduced by the Hong Kong government last year — that were responses to the protests.

In 2022, a Hong Kong court sentenced Mr. Lai to more than five years in prison for fraud, saying he had violated the terms of a lease agreement related to Apple Daily, a persistent critic of Beijing.

Here’s what else to know:

Local politics: Monday’s verdict landed at an especially sensitive political moment in Hong Kong, where an apartment complex blaze last month killed at least 160 people. The national security police have made at least a dozen arrests since the fire and have been on heightened alert for what they say are “anti-China forces” seeking to exploit the disaster to undermine social stability. Read more ›

Health concerns: Mr. Lai’s family says his health has been deteriorating as a result of his imprisonment in solitary confinement. Hong Kong officials say he requested to be held there, and that he is receiving “adequate and comprehensive” medical care.

Trump’s response: President Trump appealed directly to China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, for the media mogul’s release during a meeting in October, Mr. Lai’s foreign legal team said. But Mr. Trump, who has recently softened his posture toward China, may be increasingly reluctant to press Mr. Lai’s case with Mr. Xi. It is also unclear if China would be interested in brokering a diplomatic deal for Mr. Lai’s release, potentially on medical grounds.

Jimmy Lai’s wife, Teresa, and Cardinal Zen walked out of the courthouse together and were swarmed by reporters as they tried to walk down the street to get into their car. Police tried to create a makeshift barrier with some neon tape but it wasn’t particularly effective in warding off the cameras and microphones.

The decision “brutally marks the end of free speech and the free press in a city where those freedoms underpinned what long was Asia’s freest city as well as its earliest and most stunning economic success stories,” said Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong.

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The court also found Jimmy Lai guilty of a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious materials.

A Hong Kong court has found Jimmy Lai guilty on two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.” Seated in a glass box in the small courtroom, Lai looked ahead at the judges as he heard the news. His wife, Teresa, looked straight ahead as one of the three judges delivered the verdict.

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Credit...Louise Delmotte/Associated Press

The full reasons for the verdict run 855 pages long but the judge is reading from the last six pages, quoting extensively from Jimmy Lai’s personal WhatsApp messages in 2019 related to conversations with an associate about arranging meetings with American lawmakers and senior officials. Lai is facing two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under a sweeping national security law.

Jimmy Lai, with two police officers on either side of him, is sitting inside a glass box and is wearing large, black-rimmed glasses. He is using headphones to listen to the judges discuss the reasons for their verdict.

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A longtime activist, Jimmy Lai is Hong Kong’s most outspoken critic of Beijing. For decades he marched alongside pro-democracy protestors and his publication, Apple Daily, gave blanket coverage to protests in 2014 and 2019. In the court now, one of the three judges that heard the case just said that it was clear that Lai “had harbored his resentment and hatred of the P.R.C. for many of his adult years,” referring to the People’s Republic of China. We are still waiting for the verdict.

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Credit...Justin Chin/Bloomberg

Jimmy Lai has entered the courtroom, smiling and waving to his family. His family has expressed concern about his declining health in recent months, saying that he may not be receiving adequate medical care for his diabetes and hypertension. Hong Kong officials say he is receiving “adequate and comprehensive” medical care.

Jimmy Lai’s wife, Teresa, has arrived in court with Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former Roman Catholic bishop of Hong Kong and an outspoken supporter of democracy.

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Credit...Leung Man Hei/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Jimmy Lai’s two-year-old trial is not only extraordinary for its sensitivity, but also its length. Court proceedings took 156 days, of which Lai spent 52 on the witness stand.

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Jimmy Lai’s case has come to symbolize the crackdown on dissent against the government in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020. In the latest sign of those changes, the city’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, announced on Sunday that it would disband. The party has been shut out of Hong Kong’s legislature since 2021, when Beijing imposed a loyalty test for lawmakers.

There are so many police officers here that they appear to outnumber the journalists and a line of spectators that stretches one block. As the courthouse opened, one police officer walked around with a sniffer dog.

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Credit...Leung Man Hei/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Reporters gathered early in the morning outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court in Hong Kong, where we will soon hear the verdict in the national security trial of Jimmy Lai, the media tycoon and the city’s most prominent pro-democracy activist. The race to get a spot in court began on Friday afternoon when reporters rushed to the courthouse with paper, pens and stools to mark their places in line.

Jimmy Lai is a media mogul who took on China.

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Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, in 2019. Mr. Lai, who has been behind bars for five years, will find out the verdict in his national security trial on Monday.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Judges in Hong Kong will hand down a verdict in the landmark national security trial of the media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai on Monday, bringing to a close a five-year-old case that has come to symbolize the sweeping political changes in the city.

Mr. Lai, 78, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces,” an offense that can be punished by up to life in prison, in part over meetings he held with politicians in the United States. The U.S. government imposed sanctions on the city after the authorities had suppressed monthslong mass antigovernment protests that erupted in 2019.

He has also pleaded not guilty to a separate count of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily, the now shuttered Chinese-language newspaper he founded in 1995 that was a persistent critic of Beijing, especially after China resumed sovereignty over the former British colony two years later.

Mr. Lai has been behind bars for five years, having previously been convicted of fraud for violating the terms of a lease agreement. Known for his robust physical stature, he is now thin and frail, his health deteriorating from being held in solitary confinement, his family said.

“My heart breaks thinking of his enduring five sweltering Hong Kong summers in a tiny, airless concrete box with a bed as tough as a wooden plank,” wrote Mr. Lai’s daughter, Claire Lai, in an editorial The Washington Post published last week, in which she pleaded for her father’s release. She said that Mr. Lai was suffering from diabetes and hypertension and that his hearing and vision were failing.

Hong Kong officials say Mr. Lai is receiving “adequate and comprehensive” medical care and that he had requested to be held in solitary confinement.

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Police officers outside the West Kowloon court in August, during Mr. Lai’s long-running national security trial.Credit...Vernon Yuen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Lai’s verdict comes as Hong Kong is still contending with the aftermath of its most deadly fire in decades, an apartment complex blaze that killed at least 160 people last month. The national security police have made at least a dozen arrests since the fire and have been on heightened alert for what they say are “anti-China forces” looking to exploit the disaster to undermine social stability. Critics have said the authorities are targeting people merely calling for greater government accountability.

Mr. Lai’s verdict will again focus attention on what analysts say is Hong Kong’s shrinking tolerance for dissent against the government and free speech, as well as the continued erosion of the “one country two systems” framework that is supposed to guarantee the city some autonomy from Beijing until 2047.

Those changes have been accelerated by two national security laws, one imposed by Beijing in 2020 and another introduced by the Hong Kong government in 2024 that expanded its scope and specifically targets treason, secession, subversion and sedition. Both laws were largely a response to the widespread and sometimes violent demonstrations that engulfed the Asian financial center in 2019, one of the most serious challenges to Beijing’s authority.

The Chinese and Hong Kong governments have cast Mr. Lai as the mastermind of those protests. In their case, prosecutors accused Mr. Lai of colluding with foreign governments to target China and Hong Kong with sanctions. They cited meetings between Mr. Lai and foreign diplomats and other officials in the United States, Britain and Japan.

Mr. Lai’s legal team argued that his calls for sanctions ended once the 2020 national security law took effect. Some of Mr. Lai’s former colleagues testified against him in exchange for a reduction in their sentences.

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Protesters clashing with police officers during a protest in Hong Kong in 2019.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Human rights groups have called Mr. Lai’s trial a sham, describing it as political persecution. His case was not heard by a jury, but by three judges appointed by Hong Kong’s leader to hear national security cases.

Foreign governments, including the United States and Britain (Mr. Lai is a British citizen), have condemned the prosecution and called for Mr. Lai’s release. President Trump has said that he would try to “save” Mr. Lai, and during a summit in South Korea in October he appealed directly to China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, for the media mogul’s release, Mr. Lai’s foreign legal team said.

Mr. Trump may be more reluctant now to press Mr. Xi about Mr. Lai, having softened his posture toward China in recent months. For the first time in more than 30 years, the White House released a national security strategy that did not criticize China’s authoritarian rule or press Beijing on human rights.

It is unclear if China is interested in brokering a diplomatic deal for Mr. Lai’s release, potentially on medical grounds. Chinese and Hong Kong officials say privately that Mr. Lai must be made an example of and are concerned that he would use his freedom to renew his opposition to Beijing if he lived in exile abroad.

Claire Lai said her father would “pose no threat to the regime” if he left Hong Kong.

“His crusading days are over, and he wishes only to live out his remaining time in peace with family, joining us around the dinner table again,” she wrote in The Washington Post.

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Here’s what to know about Jimmy Lai’s national security trial.

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People waiting to enter a court in West Kowloon for the verdict in Jimmy Lai’s trial in Hong Kong on Monday.Credit...Leung Man Hei/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

One of the few tycoons who dared to insult the Chinese Communist Party, Jimmy Lai has long been a thorn in Beijing’s side. With his popular Chinese-language newspaper, Apple Daily,* *he backed pro-democracy protests that swept over Hong Kong in 2019.

Mr. Lai, 77, was one of the first and most prominent targets of a national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong the following year, under which more than 340 people have since been arrested.

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Hong Kong Media Mogul Jimmy Lai’s Trial Wraps Up

The national security trial of Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media tycoon and critic of China’s Community Party, has become a symbol of how free speech has been squashed in the city.CreditCredit...Yat Kai Yeung/NurPhoto, via Getty Images

He has been behind bars since December 2020, and is also serving a five-year sentence for fraud after being convicted of violating the terms of a lease agreement. In 2021, he was sentenced to one year in prison, along with other pro-democracy figures, over his role in an unauthorized peaceful protest. His health has faltered after years in detention.

His latest trial, on the most serious charges against him, is now coming to an end. A court will hand down a verdict in his case on Monday.

Here’s what to know.

Who is Jimmy Lai?

Mr. Lai is a self-made businessman who made his fortune in textiles. Born in China in 1947, he stowed away on a boat to the then-British colony of Hong Kong at age 12 and worked his way up the factory floor. He founded Giordano, a clothing chain with stores across Asia. He later acquired British citizenship.

He was a rare tycoon who did not keep quiet about his political stance.

When student activists in China protested for a more democratic government in 1989, he printed T-shirts with the faces of activists. After Chinese troops killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators who had occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Mr. Lai decided to become a publisher, launching Next Magazine in 1990 and Apple Daily in 1995.

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Jimmy Lai, in a red jacket, attending an editorial meeting at Apple Daily in 1995.Credit...Martin Chan/South China Morning Post, via Getty Images

In a 1994 column, he told the then-Chinese premier, Li Peng — who was seen as a force behind the 1989 Beijing crackdown — to “drop dead.” After Beijing closed Mr. Lai’s clothing stores in mainland China, he decided to sell his stake in the business to focus on his media business.

Mr. Lai became a prominent opposition figure. His outlets gave blanket coverage to mass, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, including in 2014 and 2019. “I believe in the media, by delivering information, you’re actually delivering freedom,” Mr. Lai said in an interview in 2020 with The New York Times.

Why is he on trial?

Mr. Lai stands accused of two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces,” an offense under the national security law that can be punished by up to life in prison.

The newsroom of Apple Daily was raided twice by the police before the newspaper was forced to close down. Five executives and editors who worked with Mr. Lai were also arrested in 2021 and pleaded guilty to collusion charges in the same case.

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The Apple Daily newsroom in 2020 before it was raided.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Lai was a “radical political figure” who led a global campaign urging foreign governments to impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong for their crackdown on free speech.

Mr. Lai, who will also receive a verdict on a separate count of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily, denies the charges.

Prosecutors showed diagrams charting his alleged ties with diplomats, lawmakers and officials in the United States, Britain and Japan. Calling for sanctions is considered a “hostile activity” against the government, and is an offense under the national security law. The evidence presented against Mr. Lai focused on meetings he held with American politicians, messages he had exchanged with officials, and views that he expressed in interviews with news outlets or on social media.

Mr. Lai’s lawyers argued that his calls for sanctions ceased after the national security law took effect, and that he never intended to break the law. Robert Pang, one of his lawyers, argued that it was not wrong to exert pressure on the government in the hope that it would change its policies.

Mr. Lai’s trial was not heard by a jury, but by three judges appointed by the city’s leader to hear national security cases. Some of his former colleagues testified against him in exchange for a reduction in their sentences.

What did Mr. Lai say in his testimony?

Mr. Lai took the stand for more than 50 days. When questioned, he made light of his meetings with American politicians and denied he had asked them for political favors beyond voicing support for Hong Kong.

He described his conversations with the former national security adviser, John Bolton, as general “chitchat” and said he didn’t listen “very intently” during a meeting with Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker. Donations of between $20,000 and $50,000 he made to American think tanks were “too small to even be mentioned,” he said.

He defended his intentions in running Apple Daily, saying it reflected the values of the Hong Kong people, including the pursuit of democracy and freedom of speech, religion and assembly. China has accused the tabloid of spreading “fake news” and “hate speech,” and instigating “Hong Kong independence.”

“All I was doing was carrying a torch to the reality,” Mr. Lai said.

A correction was made on

Aug. 28, 2025

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the charges against Mr. Lai. He faces two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces,” not “collusion with foreign forces.”