Meeting

Virtual Roundtable: Mark L. Clifford on Jimmy Lai and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong

Thursday, February 27, 2025
Tyrone Siu/Reuters
Speaker
Mark Clifford

President and Director, The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong

Presider
Jerome A. Cohen

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Asia Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

from Winston Lord Roundtable Series on Asia, the Rule of Law, and U.S. Foreign Policy

Mark L. Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, and Jerome A. Cohen, adjunct senior fellow for Asia studies at CFR, discuss the incredible story of billionaire and democracy activist Jimmy Lai. Clifford’s work chronicles Lai’s significance as a high-profile target of Hong Kong’s 2020 national security law. Clifford is the author of a recently published biography of Jimmy Lai, The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic. 

Top Stories on CFR

Democratic Republic of Congo

In shallowly engaging with Kinshasa and Kigali, Washington does little to promote peace and risks insulating leaders from accountability.

United States

Immigrants have long played a critical role in the U.S. economy, filling labor gaps, driving innovation, and exercising consumer spending power. But political debate over their economic contributions has ramped up under the second Trump administration.

Haiti

The UN authorization of a new security mission in Haiti marks an escalation in efforts to curb surging gang violence. Aimed at alleviating a worsening humanitarian crisis, its militarized approach has nevertheless raised concerns about repeating mistakes from previous interventions.