Donald Trump has promised to step in and "save" the British-Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai, who is facing life in prison for his vocal opposition to the Chinese regime.

Lai, who arrived in Hong Kong from mainland China at the age of 12, made his fortune in retail. In 1995, he founded Apple Daily, an independent pro-democracy tabloid, soon known for its searing criticism of the Chinese Communist Party. He became a British national in 1996 and, over the past decade, has backed opposition protests against Beijing's draconian suppression of democracy and free speech in the former British territory. He has become a "symbol of Beijing's sweeping national security crackdown" on Hong Kong, said CNN .

Since December 2020, Lai, now 77, has been in a maximum-security prison, mainly in solitary

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