The unfair trial of Jimmy Lai begins in Hong Kong

IT HAS BEEN more than three years since the police in Hong Kong Jimmy Lai and stuck him in Stanley Prison. But as Mr Lai stood in court on December 18th, facing charges of sedition and colluding with foreign forces, it felt like the culmination of a much longer saga. The pro-democracy media tycoon has the administration in Hong Kong and the national government in Beijing. They, in turn, consider Mr Lai a traitor and have been relishing the chance for more payback.Revered by many Hong Kongers for his bravery, Mr Lai has led a rags-to-riches life. At the age of 12 he escaped Mao Zedong’s China by stowing away on a boat. Once in Hong Kong he worked his way up from factory dogsbody to clothing impresario and media mogul. The government in Beijing forced him out of the garment industry in 1994 after he wrote a column in one of his magazines calling Li Peng, China’s prime minister at the time, “the son of a turtle’s egg” (a rather nasty insult).