Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has told his national security trial that he feared Joe Biden would not continue Donald Trump’s tough China policies after Biden was elected in 2020.
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.
Wearing a light green sweater and a navy blue blazer, Lai appeared at West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Thursday for the 117th day of his trial.
The founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily stands accused of two counts of taking part in a “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under a Beijing-imposed security law. He is also charged with one count of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era law.
His lawyer Steven Kwan questioned Lai about a column he wrote that was published in Apple Daily in late November 2020, after Biden had won the US presidential election. He displayed the column – written in Chinese – to the court and highlighted a part in which Lai wrote that Trump, when he was president, ended Hong Kong’s special trading status after Beijing imposed its national security law on the city.
Under Trump’s leadership, the US also imposed sanctions on some Hong Kong and Chinese officials, Lai wrote.
Joe Biden. File photo: White House.
Kwan also highlighted a sentence in which Lai wrote that Taiwan’s “only hope was if the Western world recognised the threat that the Chinese Communist Party posed to world peace.” In the same sentence, Lai added that if Biden were to give up Trump’s “tough China policies,” Taiwan would be in “big trouble.”
Susana D’Almada Remedios, one of three national security judges presiding over the non-jury trial, asked Lai whether he had wanted Trump’s tough policies to continue.
“I didn’t say I want it to be continue[d]. I was afraid that Biden would give it up,” Lai said.
He added: “I think Trump’s policy has been effective and Trump will be good for Hong Kong, and if Biden did not continue or give it up, I was worried.”
Trump’s withdrawal of Hong Kong’s special trade status was effective because it had put pressure on the city’s government to “reconsider” the national security law, Lai said.
Apple Daily’s edition on June 18, 2021, the day after police raided its office and arrested five senior executives of the newspaper under the national security law. Photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.
While discussing the article, Kwan pointed out that the version of the column printed in the newspaper was different from the one published on Apple Daily’s website. Lai said he had no knowledge that his staff had shared his column online, or that two extra paragraphs had been added to it.
He confirmed that some of the content in those paragraphs had been said by him on different occasions, but that he was “puzzled” as to why the additions were made.
‘Same values’ as the West
Also on Thursday, the judges pressed Lai on what kind of support he was hoping for when he spoke to foreign politicians about the situation in Hong Kong.
The questions came as Kwan showed the court the transcript of an interview Lai did with Benedict Rogers, a UK-based human rights activist who is also the founder of advocacy group Hong Kong Watch. In the interview, Lai said Hong Kong held the “same values” as the West, and that if the West ignored Hong Kong, that would damage the credibility of Western countries.
Lai confirmed with Kwan that he was inviting countries to support Hong Kong. His lawyer then asked what it was that those countries might be able to do, to which Lai said he was not a politician and could not answer.
Remedios and Esther Toh, another national security judge, both pressed Lai on the question.
A man walks past barriers set up outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts in Hong Kong, on September 19, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
“I was not expecting anything in particular, I was expecting help in general… I did not think about anything in particular,” Lai said.
Kwan also asked Lai if he was advocating that other countries impose sanctions or conduct hostile activities against Hong Kong and China, using the wording of the national security law.
Each time, Lai said no.
Xi an ‘absolute dictator’
In the last hour of Thursday’s hearing, Kwan showed the court two transcript of segments from an episode of the mogul’s “Live Chat With Jimmy Lai” show – a regular feature in which Lai invited foreign journalists, analysts and politicians – aired in November 2020.
In both segments, Lai described Chinese leader Xi Jinping as the “absolute dictator” of human history. The mogul said Xi was even more powerful than Mao Zedong, the Chinese leader who led the country from its 1949 establishment until the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Lai said that unlike during Mao’s impoverished era, Xi was leading a country with economic heft and technology that enabled the surveillance of “every word and every action of its citizens.”
Lawyer Steven Kwan arrives at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, in Hong Kong, on September 19, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Kwan asked Lai if he had intended to incite hatred against the central authorities. Lai said he had not, and that he was just describing the circumstances that made Xi a dictator.
The barrister also highlighted a comment made in one of the live chat segments in which Lai talked about Australia being “bullied” by China, referring to tariffs that China imposed on the country’s wine, among other exports, in 2020.
Lai said he was not inciting hatred against China, but just wanted China to “follow the rules of international trade.”
Toh asked Lai whether imposing trade embargos was “not following the rules.” The mogul replied that China’s embargos on Australia were a response to Australia’s support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
A national security law advertisement in an MTR station. File photo: GovHK.
Remedios challenged Lai on whether it was a “fact” that that was the reason for China’s embargoes. She said she believed it was a response to Australia calling for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19.
Lai said she was right, but that he thought Hong Kong was “also involved.”
Thursday marked Lai’s 25th day of testifying. When his trial began on December 18, 2023, he had already spent more than 1,000 days in custody after having had his bail revoked in December 2020. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.
