Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has denied at his national security trial that he requested Washington, via a senior US adviser, to sanction China after the Beijing-imposed security law came into effect five years ago.
Jimmy Lai. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.
Lai, 77, on Monday also pushed back against the allegation that he sought the United States to engage in hostile activities against China when he suggested that former US president Joe Biden’s administration prioritise human rights issues in Hong Kong and Xinjiang in any trade talks with Beijing.
Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, and a third charge of conspiring to publish seditious materials under colonial-era legislation. He faces life behind bars if convicted.
Before wrapping up their 24-day cross examination of the tycoon on Monday, prosecutors continued to grill Lai about his remarks, made both in private and in public after the national security law was promulgated in June 2020.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Chau drew the court’s attention to an exchange on messaging app Signal between Lai and his aide Mark Simon on July 15, 2020. In that exchange, Simon relayed a question from Mary Kissel, a senior adviser to then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, asking the tycoon for his position regarding US-Hong Kong relations at the time.
A day prior to that exchange, Donald Trump, serving his first term as US president, signed an executive order that suspended Hong Kong’s special status under US law, citing concerns over the Beijing-imposed security law.
Donald Trump in 2020. File Photo: White House.
“I said that it’s not necessary to revoke the special status of HK because with national security law HK is finished anyway. The point is not HK but China. Sanction China as to stop it from clamping down on HK,” Lai wrote to Simon.
“But after I thought about it I think they’re right to revoke HK’s special status, because once the US and China decoupled, HK would be a way out for China. To close this outlet of China would force it to come to terms easier to demands of US,” he continued in the message.
Lai told the court that his reply to Simon only showed his thinking at that time and denied the suggestion that he wished the US suspension of Hong Kong’s special status would last.
He admitted that he was aware Simon would relay the message back to Kissel but denied that constituted a direct request for Washington to impose sanctions against China and Hong Kong.
“I was asked a question, and I answered the question,” he told the court.
‘With strength’
In an episode of talk show Live Chat With Jimmy Lai, livestreamed on December 1, 2020, Lai said he hoped that the Biden Administration would “link the human rights issues as a precondition” in trade talks with Beijing. He reiterated the same idea in an interview with American news outlet Fox Business on the same day.
During the talk show, Lai also said the Biden Administration should deal with the Chinese Communist Party “with strength, not appeasement, not weakness.”
In court, the tycoon denied that he was calling on the US to engage in hostile activities against China, saying he was merely hoping that human rights in Hong Kong could be protected.
People enter 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.
“I think that… freedom and human rights are, you know, a birthright for us,” he said. “It’s just very logical for me to suggest that.”
Chau read out the three charges against the tycoon with details of the alleged conspiracies and co-conspirators before concluding his cross-examination.
Lai said he disagreed with all the allegations, adding that they were “totally rubbish” and the prosecutors “just made it up.”
Lai’s lawyer, Steven Kwan, said he expected to complete his re-examination of the tycoon in one day and asked the court to adjourn the trial until Wednesday.
