Free China

Free China Movement Rapid Response — September 4, 2026

Jimmy Lai built extraordinary business success, then chose to defend liberty rather than purchase safety through silence. His 20-year sentence is therefore a warning not only to journalists and democracy advocates, but to every entrepreneur who depends on predictable law, secure property rights and freedom of thought.

FCM calls on business leaders in Mainland China, Hong Kong, the Republic of China on Taiwan and Chinese communities worldwide to learn from Lai’s example. Wealth creates influence, and influence can help defend political prisoners, independent information, civil society, constitutional government and the rule of law.

We honor the courage of earlier republican pioneers who risked their lives to awaken fellow Chinese, while rejecting the need to repeat the violence of past revolutions. The task today is peaceful: turn courage into institutions, institutions into rights, and rights into a free China.

FCM calls for Jimmy Lai’s immediate and unconditional release.