Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was twelve years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he often slept overnight on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At 21, he was running a factory and by his mid-twenties, he was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the United States. But then came Tiananmen Square democracy protest and the massacre of 1989, where his reaction to the violence was to enter the media industry to push China toward more freedoms.
In his latest book, The Troublemaker, Mark L. Clifford offers an intimate biography of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist fighting for freedom of speech who became China’s most famous political prisoner.
Mark L. Clifford is president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, an NGO dedicated to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law for the people of Hong Kong. He is the author of Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World and he holds a PhD in Hong Kong history from the University of Hong Kong.
