The August arrest of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai and police raid of the newspaper’s headquarters were among the defining moments that changed Asia this year, according to the BBC.

Britain’s public broadcaster called 73-year-old Lai a “rebel mogul” seen by many Hongkongers as a hero who dared to challenge the soaring influence of Beijing. The raid by more than 200 officers on Aug. 10, during which Lai was paraded through the newsroom in scenes live streamed by Apple Daily’s reporters, stunned the city, the BBC said.

Lai is no stranger to arrest, but this time he faces life imprisonment under the national security law, the BBC said. In a show of support the following day, Hongkongers flocked to newsstands to buy the paper, with its front-page headline vowing to “fight on.” The BBC also highlighted the way Lai was paraded in shackles as he was led to court.

The BBC also singled out two elements of the protests in Thailand. One was the 10-point manifesto delivered by student leader Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul on reforming the monarchy.

“No one in this world is born with blue blood. Some people may be more fortunate than others, but no one is born more noble than anyone else,” said the 21-year-old. She was charged last month under nation’s draconian laws against insulting the monarchy and faces 15 years behind bars.

The second was the creativity shown in Thailand’s youth-led protests, including the deployment of inflatable yellow rubber ducks on Bangkok’s streets in November, which provided a protective shield for protesters against water cannons.

Another defining moment was when North Korea blew up the joint liaison office that allowed the two Koreas to talk directly for the first time since their civil war ended in an armistice in 1953. The North accused the South of sending propaganda leaflets over the border attached to balloons or floated across rivers in bottles.

The BBC picked a massive pool party of thousands at the Wuhan water park — without masks or social distancing — as the significant news of China, as life in the city where COVID-19 first emerged appeared to return to normal.

The British news outlet also mentioned that on Oct. 30, same-sex couples took part in a mass military wedding in Taiwan for the first time ever.

Two pieces of news in India were chosen by the BBC, including religious riots in Delhi in February following the attack on a Muslim man by a Hindu mob, and the scene of a paramilitary policeman swinging his baton at an elderly and unarmed Sikh farmer in the country in November.

Other issues included a young mother in the Philippines kneeling before her newborn baby after she was born in custody and taken away from her for a month; as well as a photo of a Komodo dragon faced with a construction truck in Indonesia.

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