London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

Who are Jimmy Lai and Agnes Chow, two of the Hong Kong democracy advocates arrested Monday?

Who are Jimmy Lai and Agnes Chow, two of the Hong Kong democracy advocates arrested Monday?

The fears of many pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, which have been building since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law over the territory earlier this summer, were realized Monday with the arrest of a media tycoon, his sons, a young activist and others — the most prominent arrests under the law to date.

The arrests targeted two of the city’s best-known pro-democracy figures: newspaper mogul Jimmy Lai, 71, whose resistance to Beijing dates back to the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre; and Agnes Chow, 23, a leader in the new generation of activists.

The imposition of the new security law triggered fierce international criticism and escalated tensions with the United States. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other officials for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly” last week, citing the legislation.

Who is Jimmy Lai?


Originally from mainland China, Lai was smuggled into Hong Kong as a child, according to Reuters, and worked his way to the top of the city’s clothing industry as the founder of Giordano, a popular retailer.

By his account, the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre awakened his political consciousness.

“I was Chinese but could never relate to China,” Lai said in a New York Times interview later that year. “I lived with that typical contradiction of overseas Chinese. But the students in Tiananmen changed all that.”

In 1995, two years before Britain handed Hong Kong over to China, Lai founded the city’s Apple Daily newspaper. At the time, for many residents of the city, the idea of China withdrawing the city’s political freedoms seemed far removed.

Under the “One country, two systems” model after the handover, Hong Kong was supposed to retain a high degree of autonomy until 2047.

But as Beijing’s moves to restrict freedoms in the territory became more concerted and frequent in recent years, Lai’s pro-democracy appeals gained urgency.

His newspaper and news site remain one of the city’s most-read publications, despite recent financial pressure.



Police lead pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai away from his home on Monday. (Vernon Yuen/AFP/Getty Images)



Lai made no secret of his criticism of Beijing, drawing rebukes from mainland Chinese outlets that accused him of treason.

He met with Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last year.

At home in Hong Kong, Lai continued to participate in numerous pro-democracy rallies, amid growing tensions. In February, he was arrested over his earlier participation in an unauthorized protest but was later released.

The national security law heightened the stakes, introducing potential lifelong prison sentences.

“I’m prepared for prison,” Lai told Agence France-Presse earlier this summer.

His activism, he maintained in an interview with his own paper, was his responsibility alone. The assurance did not stop the arrest of his sons or a raid on the Apple Daily offices.

“Hong Kong’s press freedom is now hanging by a thread, but our staff will remain fully committed to our duty to defend the freedom of the press,” the newspaper’s publishing company, Next Digital, said in a statement.

Who is Agnes Chow?




Chow became widely known during the 2014 student protests in Hong Kong, when she was 17.

A key figure in the new generation of pro-democracy protesters, Chow said she became engaged in politics through social media groups when she was 15.

During student protests at the time, she connected with activists who later became prominent faces of the city’s youth protest movement.

Seeking to seize on the momentum of the 2014 protests, the group founded the pro-democracy Demosistō party in 2016, which has been a frequent target for authorities in recent years.

Chow renounced her British citizenship to run for the city’s Legislative Council in 2018. But her bid for public office was rejected after she published a pro-democracy manifesto in which she called for Hong Kong’s self-determination.

“The ban against me isn’t personal,” Chow told the Guardian, responding to the ban at the time. It is “targeting an entire generation of young people who have a different view from the government.”

After police arrested her at a pro-democracy protest last summer, she was banned from leaving the city. Her appeals were rejected.

“We are just small ants in front of the Chinese government, and if they wish to — of course I don’t want to see it happening but — something like [the] Tiananmen crackdown could take place,” she said in a Skype conversation with Japanese students in January, according to a recording obtained by the Nikkei Asian Review.

Chow is fluent in Japanese, a language she taught herself, and has a substantial base of support in Japan.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×