China Took His City. And Now His Father. episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 27, 2026 · 37 MIN

China Took His City. And Now His Father.

from Deborah Lebree's podcast · host Deborah Lebree

When pro-democracy protesters marched in the streets in Hong Kong in 2019, China responded by arresting thousands, including the leaders of the movement. One of the arrested was Jimmy Lai, who had used his newspaper to campaign for democracy. This month, he received a 20-year jail sentence. In an interview, Michael Barbaro speaks to Mr. Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, about the sentence, what it means for the pro-democracy movement and where Hong Kong may go from here. Guest: Sebastien Lai, a democracy activist and the son of the pro-democracy media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai. (edited)  Background reading: A Hong Kong court sentenced Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison.The sentence for the media mogul shows how Hong Kong enforces Xi Jinping’s red lines with a new severity.Listen to our interview with Jimmy Lai from 2020. Photo: Andrew Testa for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 27, 2026

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