The Jailing of Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong newspaper publisher who spent decades fighting for Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms, has been convicted on national security charges and may spend the rest of his life in jail.

Lai took part in protests against the growing authoritarianism of the Hong Kong government. His newspaper Apple Daily covered the protesters' demands for more democracy and exposed the riches of China’s top political families and cronyism.

Each year he attended a candlelight memorial event in Hong Kong for those killed in the Chinese military’s assault on peaceful protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, and voiced support for Chinese dissidents who shared his concern over their country’s direction.

I got the idea for this cartoon after remembering about the Umbrella Movement, named after the Hong Kong protesters who used umbrellas to protect themselves from police pepper sprays.

Here is a youtube video showing my process for creating this cartoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs4VsF-Xjtc

REFERENCE
"The Campaign to Free Jimmy Lai" by Liam Scott for The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/the-campaign-to-free-jimmy-lai/

"To China, He Was an Arch Villain. To His Supporters, He Was Their Hope" by Alexandra Stevenson and David Pierson for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/world/asia/jimmy-lai-guilty-national…

"Hong Kong Media Tycoon’s Conviction Was Years in the Making" by Andrew Higgins and Alexandra Stevenson for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/world/asia/hong-kong-jimmy-lai-tycoo…

"EXPLAINED: How the umbrella became a Hong Kong protest symbol" Paul Eckert for Radio Free Asia
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/hong-kong-umbrella-protest-anniv…

"Jimmy Lai's guilty verdict marks the end of press freedom in Hong Kong" by Devin Windelspecht for Human Rights Research Center
https://www.humanrightsresearch.org/post/jimmy-lai-s-guilty-verdict-mar…

"The Committee To Protect Journalists condemns Hong Kong’s conviction of Jimmy Lai in national security case" by The Committee To Protect Journalists
https://cpj.org/2025/12/cpj-condemns-hong-kongs-conviction-of-jimmy-lai…