Who Is Jimmy Lai, The Hong Kong Media Tycoon Facing A Life Sentence In A National Security Trial?

Former media mogul Jimmy Lai has been accused of sedition and foreign collusion. Lai has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020.Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty ImagesJimmy Lai was the chief of the now-defunct Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily.Now 77, he's facing a life sentence in a national security trial in Hong Kong.He was arrested in August 2020 after the intense anti-China government protests of 2019.Jimmy Lai, once one of Hong Kong's most outspoken media tycoons, has been silent for more than four years since his arrest in 2020.But on Wednesday, Lai was seen in a Hong Kong courtroom, where he spoke in his own defense in a national security trial that could well end in him being sent to prison for life.Lai was charged under Hong Kong's far-reaching national security law, legislation introduced in 2020 that has had a chilling effect on protests and dissent on the island.The national security law was enacted after the city erupted in grassroots-led protests against China in 2019.Lai, who has been accused of sedition and foreign collusion, downplayed his ties to the West during his testimony on Wednesday.The former media mogul had met then-Vice President Mike Pence during a visit to the US in July 2019 amid the protests in Hong Kong."I would not dare to ask the vice president to do anything.