The Hoover Institution Program on the US, China, and the World hosted a roundtable on From Press to Protest to Prison: Jimmy Lai and the End of Hong Kong Freedom on Monday, November 3, 2025 from 4:00-5:30 PM PT.
This talk examines the prosecution and imprisonment of Hong Kong pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law, situating his case within the broader context of nearly 2,000 political convictions following the city’s 2019 democracy protests. Lai—detained since late 2020 and largely held in solitary confinement—faces imminent conviction and sentencing following a lengthy trial. His prosecution is widely regarded as emblematic of the city’s intensified political crackdown, with international ramifications: President Donald Trump’s public pledge to seek Lai’s release has made the case an issue in Sino‑U.S. bilateral discussions. Drawing on his biography of Lai, The Troublemaker, and his experience as a former director of Next Digital, Mark Clifford will analyze the legal, political, and media dimensions of the case, assess its significance for Hong Kong’s future as a global financial center, and consider its implications for relations between China and democratic countries.
SPEAKER
Mark L. Clifford is the president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Hong Kong and lived in Asia from 1987 until 2021. Clifford is the former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and publisher and editor-in-chief of The Standard (both in Hong Kong). He held senior editorial positions at BusinessWeek and the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong and Seoul. He graduated in history from UC Berkeley and was a Walter Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University.
MODERATOR
Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and has written extensively on democratic development worldwide. At Hoover, he co-leads the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region and participates in the Program on the US, China, and the World. At FSI, he is among the core faculty of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.
