Jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai has said he was “too optimistic” about Hong Kong people’s willingness to resist a Beijing-drafted national security law before it was imposed in June 2020.
Activist Tsang Kin-shing, also known as “the Bull,” enters the the West Kowloon Law Courts Building after queueing for hours in the rain overnight to hear detained pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai testify in his national security trial, on November 20, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Lai, 76, told his national security trial on Thursday that it was “wishful thinking” on his part to believe that the law would not be implemented as scheduled on June 30, 2020, and that it would be “impossible” for Hongkongers to “stop fighting.”
The court heard that on June 29, 2020, Lai texted the then-Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung, saying in a Chinese-language message: “It’s impossible to stop fighting now. Come what may.”
He was responding to a news report quoting Beijing loyalist Ip Kwok-him, then a deputy to China’s National People’s Congress, as saying the law would not be retroactive and urged residents to stop the activities that could breach the impending law.
Lai, who is on trial for collusion with foreign forces and sedition and could face life imprisonment if convicted, told the court he had not been referring to his own fight but to the resistance of the Hong Kong people in general.
“Because I thought that was not the end of it. Again, I was too optimistic,” he said.
Jimmy Lai. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.
Giving evidence for the 11th day, Lai said he had not read the contents of the law before its enactment, but he had heard “rumours” and seen details based on news reports.
“I had a rough idea of what was coming,” he said.
His lawyer Steven Kwan asked the tycoon to explain a column he wrote for his now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper on June 14, 2020, in which Lai said the security law would “destroy” Hong Kong’s freedoms and rule of law.
Lai maintained that he did not intend to incite hatred against authorities in Beijing despite calling the regime “shameless” and “untrustworthy.”
“I was just stating the facts, that what we were entitled to in the [mini-constitution] Basic Law had become nothing,” he said.
He also denied bringing the city’s judiciary into contempt when he – citing his own legal woes at the time about the alleged criminal intimidation of a reporter – suggested in the article that no judge would take “political risks” when the security law came into effect.
“I was referring to that very critical time when you were all under pressure from the coming [security law],” he told the three presiding judges. “My case was very political, that’s what I meant.”
Judge Esther Toh questioned how Lai’s criminal intimidation case would be political in nature, to which Lai said it was he himself who was political.
In another text message exchange with Cheung on June 18 that year, Lai told the then-publisher that he believed the security law would not be enacted by the end of that month even though China’s Xinhua news agency had released more details about it.
Lai also expressed doubt over claims the law would not be retroactive in his text messages with Cheung the following day.
He told the court on Thursday the former belief was merely his wishful thinking as an “optimist,” adding that he did not trust at that time that Beijing would keep its word.
He was also asked to explain an address he gave during an event to celebrate the newspaper’s 25th anniversary, in which he told staff that “no one could require you to be a martyr.”
The tycoon said that remark did not contradict his earlier statement about he himself choosing to stay in Hong Kong and “fight until the end,” because he did not want to invite his staff to do the same.
“Because their life are more important than Apple Daily,” he said.
Apple Daily’s last edition is issued on June 24, 2021. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.
Lai denied ever telling the then-Apple Daily editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee that his arrest under the security law would be seen internationally as a suppression of human rights and trigger international sanctions on the city.
Yeung, who turned prosecution witness after pleading guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces, earlier told the court that Lai made that remark at a meal gathering on June 23.
“That’s not me. It would be presumptuous to say that, you know, my arrest would trigger all the international reactions,” Lai said.
He also denied trying to persuade Chan Tsz-wah, another defendant turned prosecution witness, to continue lobbying for international sanctions as the security law approached, rejecting Chan’s earlier testimony.
He said he had “all along cautioned people not to cross the offence” in his writing and personal communication and maintained that he had not requested Chan to do anything other than to “pacify” violence.
The defence on Friday is expected to examine Lai’s activities and a series of video interviews he gave with overseas figures after the enactment of the security law.
