Arriving in Hong Kong as a penniless 12-year-old stowaway from southern China, Jimmy Lai sought only freedom and a future. At the time, Lai could never have imagined how his life would become forever intertwined with this former British colony. "I'll sink with the ship, because this place gives me everything," said Lai in an interview about Hong Kong with DW a few months before he was taken into custody in December 2020. He was one of the first high-profile figures to be targeted under a "