Melbourne | The images of Jimmy Lai, one of Hong Kong’s best-known entrepreneurs, being led away handcuffed and surrounded by police in 2020 went on to become one of the most poignant symbols of the erosion of the city’s freedoms under Chinese rule.

Hundreds of police had earlier raided the newsroom of his popular tabloid, the Apple Daily, in an excessive display of force against a media organisation that was one of Beijing’s most outspoken critics. HongKongers queued for hours to buy the final edition of the newspaper when it was inevitably shut down a month later.