Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai ordered Apple Daily petition seeking US sanctions on Beijing, ex-publisher says
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai instructed his Apple Daily newspaper to launch a petition seeking US sanctions on Chinese officials ahead of Beijing’s imposition of the national security law, a former senior staff member has testified.
Cheung Kim-hung, an ex-publisher of the now-shuttered Apple Daily, said on Tuesday that the 76-year-old media mogul ordered the “One Hongkonger One Letter to Save Hong Kong” campaign in May 2020. The petition to then-US president Donald Trump invited “interference” as Beijing prepared to impose the security law in the city, he said.
“As the National People’s Congress announced the imposition of the national security law, Mr Lai hoped that, through this campaign, [Trump] would take action to save Hong Kong, to interfere with the matter,” Cheung said in Cantonese on the 14th day of Lai’s national security trial at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building.
He said the interference included placing sanctions on Chinese officials who were “relevant” to the passing of the security law, without elaborating.
Beijing inserted the security legislation directly into the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalises subversion, secession, collusion and terrorism, with offenders facing up to life in prison.
Lai, the highest-profile figure to stand trial under the security law, has denied two charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, as well as one charge of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era legislation.
Cheung is among six senior employees at Apple Daily who were charged alongside Lai, and who have pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces. They have been remanded in custody for over two years and will be sentenced after Lai’s trial concludes.
Lai said the petition should also call on campaign supporters to write to the US’ vice-president, secretary of state, and congress members using a template provided by Apple Daily, according to WhatsApp messaging records displayed by the prosecution on Tuesday.
Lai also gave instructions for the newspaper to ask signatories to send the petition to those US politicians on social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook, and through email, Cheung said.
The prosecution also showed several of Apple Daily’s newspaper front pages and online articles, published in May 2020, which featured a statement addressed to Trump with a hashtag that read “TrumpSavesHK.”
“China’s Communist Party (CCP) is now cancelling Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy… Only through international pressure will the [CCP] ever reconsider this disastrous course of action,” the statement read.
Cheung testified that international pressure amounted to foreign sanctions and other forms of “hostile actions” against the CCP, but a judge said that the witness should be careful about his choice of words.
“Don’t interpret what you have heard, just try to remember the phrase that Mr Lai actually used,” High Court judge Alex Lee, who was handpicked by the government to preside over national security cases, said.
The prosecution witness responded that Lai only used the word “sanctions” in their conversations. He also said he did not know who wrote the statement.
After Cheung, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee are also set to testify for the prosecution.
Earlier on Tuesday, Cheung continued his testimony from last Friday that Lai spoke of foreign sanctions more frequently after he met with then US vice-president Mike Pence in a visit to Washington in July 2019. Lai called Trump “a man of action, not a man of mere talk,” Cheung said.
25th anniversary special edition
The prosecution also displayed the draft of an article that Lai sent Cheung via WhatsApp on May 17, 2020. Cheung said that Lai drafted it for a special edition of Apple Daily to mark its 25th anniversary.
Lead prosecutor Anthony Chau read out parts of the draft, which suggested that overseas supporters would offer “political protection” to the tabloid.
“It means that, if many foreigners subscribe to the English edition of Apple Daily, the CCP would face a lot of foreign sanctions for interfering with Apple Daily,” Cheung said. “If foreign politicians or officials could subscribe, it would mean great political protection to [the outlet].”
Lai ‘very supportive of young people’
During Tuesday’s hearing, the prosecution also showed a campaign published as an advertisement in the newspaper named “Support students to subscribe to Apple Daily.”
Cheung said the campaign aimed to encourage readers to subsidise young people’s subscriptions to Apple Daily.
“Mr Lai was very supportive of young people coming out to resist, and had praised their sacrifice for the homeland,” Cheung said, adding that the media mogul wished young people could become devoted readers of Apple Daily.
Lai also set an editorial policy that promoted “cohesion” between peaceful and valiant protesters during the 2019 protests, Cheung said. The prosecution witness previously said that Lai had full control over editorial decision-making at Apple Daily.
Senior Counsel Robert Pang, Lai’s lead lawyer, returned to the trial on Tuesday after being absent for two weeks due to personal reasons.
Lai’s trial, which is expected to last for 80 days, has been closely watched internationally as a bellwether for press freedom in Hong Kong. The government has said that law enforcement actions were based on evidence and had “nothing to do with freedom of the press.”
So far, the court has heard allegations that Lai was the “mastermind” of the alleged conspiracies, using Apple Daily as a platform and providing instructions and financial support to his aides to lobby for international sanctions.
The trial will continue on Wednesday.
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