The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong's Greatest Dissident, and China's Most Feared Critic
 
Author：(Mark L. Clifford)
 
Jimmy Lai — a name that represents an entire era.
He fled mainland China at the age of twelve during the Great Famine, penniless, and built his life from nothing in Hong Kong.

 
He did not finish primary school, yet with street smarts he founded Giordano, moving ahead of the global “fast fashion” wave.
With distinctive creativity and innovative business strategies, he developed new commercial models and rapidly accumulated wealth.

 
Deeply moved by the brutal crackdown of the June Fourth Tiananmen Square incident, he founded Next Media to advocate for freedom and democracy.
Once a media tycoon, he reshaped the media landscape in Hong Kong and Taiwan through Next Magazine and Apple Daily, drawing sharply polarized praise and criticism.

 
Despite being a billionaire, he took to the streets, standing at the forefront of Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” and “Anti-Extradition” movements.
He traveled internationally to speak out for Hong Kong’s democracy, only to be arrested by the Hong Kong government and held in prolonged detention.
Since 2020, he has become one of China’s most well-known political prisoners, touching the sensitive nerves of U.S.–China relations, with President Trump publicly calling on China to release him.
 

From within prison — through diaries, paintings, and prayer — his reflections and awakening have come to embody the values of Hong Kong and the will for democracy.