Jimmy Lai, the publisher of a popular tabloid, has spent years fighting the landmark national security case brought over his support of the city’s now vanquished pro-democracy movement.

The release of the prisoners, including a Nobel laureate and two opposition leaders, was part of a monthslong rapprochement between Washington and Minsk.

© Ints Kalnins/Reuters

A correspondent for Reuters, he became a global symbol of China’s isolation and of the anti-foreigner hysteria spawned by its Cultural Revolution.