Hong Kong Apple Daily newspaper continued campaigning after founder Jimmy Lai detained, ex-publisher says
Hong Kong Free Press
Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai told the newspaper’s staff to keep campaigning against Hong Kong’s national security law and try to attract foreign attention even after he was detained, the former publisher of the media outlet told Lai’s national security trial.
Cheung Kim-hung, a defendant turned prosecution witness, told the court that Lai had instructed the newspaper to carry on its operations based on existing editorial policy while he was in custody. Cheung cited a visit he made to the detention centre shortly after Lai was denied bail in December 2020.
The former publisher said Lai told him “not to be afraid” and to maintain the newspaper’s approach to attract international attention to the situation in Hong Kong, in hopes that foreign countries would offer assistance or even impose sanctions on authorities after Beijing enacted the national security law in June that year.
“Mr Lai instructed us to continue what we had always been doing. Mr Lai was very much in a fighting spirit,” Cheung said in Cantonese on the 16th day of the trial at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building.
Lai denies two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the security law – punishable by life imprisonment – and one count of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under colonial-era legislation.
The 76-year-old media mogul has been remanded in custody since December 3, 2020, initially over a fraud case surrounding a lease violation at the headquarters of Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company. He is currently serving a five-year and nine-month sentence for that offence.
Continuing his testimony against his ex-boss, Cheung said he relayed Lai’s message to other senior editorial staff members, including the then-associate publisher Chan Pui-man, editor-in-chief Ryan Law, digital director Nick Cheung, editorial writers Fung Wai-kwong and Yeung Ching-kee, as well as the editors of various news desks at the newspaper.
The witness said he directed the operations of Apple Daily in the absence of Lai, until he was himself arrested on June 17, 2021.
Cheung is among six senior employees at Apple Daily 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.
‘Life-and-death situation’
Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the court heard that Lai had kept a close eye on the English-language edition of Apple Daily, which was launched a month before the Beijing-imposed national security law came into effect in June 2020.
Cheung recalled that the atmosphere at Apple Daily in May 2020 was “very tense,” after China’s National People’s Congress announced plans for the security law.
“Mr Lai felt that, after the enactment of the national security law, Hong Kong and Apple Daily were in a life-and-death situation, so he held on tightly to the English version,” Cheung said, adding that Lai intended the English edition to influence “international opinions.”
Cheung had said earlier in his testimony that Lai decided to launch the English-language edition in an attempt to stoke anti-China sentiment in the US and invite foreign sanctions against the local government and Beijing.
“Mr Lai said he was not afraid and would continue to say what he had to say, including to call on the US to sanction China,” Cheung said, adding that the media mogul was “busy” conducting interviews with international media outlets about the security law at that time.
The prosecution displayed WhatsApp messages between Lai and editorial writer Fung, who was in charge of the editorials in the English-language edition.
The records suggested that Lai was dissatisfied about having too much international coverage and instead wanted the English edition to focus on news about mainland China.
“I don’t think [international news] is needed since wherever they come from their local news media should have covered it. I rather think that we should focus on Chinese news and be known for it without dilution,” Lai wrote to Fung.
The court earlier heard that Lai had complete control over the editorial decision-making at his newspaper, ordering the English-language edition to focus on news stories about China’s infringement of human rights and economic freedom in the mainland and in Hong Kong.
High Court judge Alex Lee, one of three designated national security judges hearing the case, questioned whether Lai had overstepped to influence editorial decisions at Apple Daily, but Cheung said it was common for media owners to have a personal “style” and stance.
Live Chat with Jimmy Lai
The prosecution also played two episodes of a livestream programme featuring Lai during Thursday’s hearing.
Lai first made a live stream on Twitter, now known as X, on July 7, 2020, in which he said the purpose was to promote the English-language edition of Apple Daily.
Answering questions submitted to him in English, Lai said the national security law was a “death knell” for Hong Kong as it “supersedes” the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, and the rule of law.
When asked if he was personally afraid of the security law and whether he had considered leaving the city, Lai said: “I cannot be afraid, because… if I am intimidated, I will be useless. If I am useless, I may as well die.”
“I will never leave Hong Kong. If I do so then I will disgrace myself, discredit Apple Daily, and undermine the solidarity of the pan-democrat movement,” he said. “If the worst comes to the worst, my wife and my children will have to leave and I will be the only one to stay… Without the support from my wife and my children, It’s really difficult for me to go on, but I will go on.”
The second episode, live streamed on July 30, 2020, featured Lai, former Next Digital director Mark Clifford, and former director of the American Institute in Taiwan Raymond Burghardt. The trio discussed the national security law, US-China relations, and the possibility of a new cold war.
During their opening statement, the prosecution alleged that these video talks were evidence of Lai’s connections with foreign elements and a conspiracy to attract international sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.
The court has also 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 sanctions.
The trial continues on Friday, when the prosecution is expected to finish questioning Cheung.
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