AP Interview: Hong Kong media tycoon says city now 'dead'

HONG KONG (AP) — When Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrived in Hong Kong at age 12, the city felt like heaven to him, brimming with hope and freedom. He arrived poor, but over the years embarked on a rags-to-riches path from a garment factory worker to a wealthy businessman known for founding the popular Apple Daily newspaper and for being an outspoken pro-democracy activist.

“The hope I had (in Hong Kong) lasted for a long time, it made me who I am today,” Lai said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, hours after a new Hong Kong national security law imposed by mainland China came into effect.

“(When I first arrived), I could feel it, it was so palpable, that I almost thought a great future was waiting for me.”

But that hope dimmed over the years, and with the enactment of the security law, Lai says the Hong Kong he once knew is dead.

“It’s worse than the worst scenario imagined. Hong Kong is totally subdued, totally under control,” he said. “It’s sad that Hong Kong is dead.”

The security law is seen by many as Beijing’s boldest move yet to erase the legal firewall between the semi-autonomous territory and the mainland’s authoritarian Communist Party system.

Under the law, anyone suspected of taking part in subversive, secessionist or terrorist activities, as well as colluding with foreign forces to intervene in the city’s affairs, could face a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. In some cases, mainland China will assume jurisdiction and suspects could be sent there for trial.

Lai said he will continue fighting for democracy, but it will now have to be in a “very different way.”

“We will have to see how many of us are left in the fighting camp,” he said, adding that many will be frightened away by the...