Hong Kong arrests pro-democracy media tycoon in activist crackdown

Hong Kong police arrested a top pro-democracy media tycoon in a crackdown on activists involved in the protests that paralysed the special administrative region in 2019.

Jimmy Lai, who founded Apple Daily in 1995, was arrested along with two pro-democracy politicians for illegal assembly relating to a protest on 31 August.

Apple Daily is the most outspoken pro-democracy newspaper in the city and often criticises the city’s authority and the Chinese government.

With the arrest, Chinese state media claimed that the three men arrested including Lai were the masterminds behind the protests that started in August last year and continued for months. They all denied the claim.

Lai has been labelled a traitor by Beijing. He sparked an angry response from China in July after he met Mike Pence, US vice-president, and secretary of state Mike Pompeo in Washington.

Demonstrators insist that the protests are the product of a mass leaderless movement organised on anonymous social media groups.

There have been no mass protests since the outbreak of the coronavirus.