Detained ex-editor of Hong Kong Apple Daily newspaper issues apology over ‘false’ Chinese espionage allegations
Hong Kong Free Press
The former editor-in-chief of defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has issued a public apology for publishing reports alleging that two business executives were Chinese spies when the pair was involved in an espionage investigation in Taiwan four years ago.
The statement from editor-in-chief Ryan Law came days after travel bans barring Chinese businessman Xiang Xin and his wife Kung Ching from leaving Taiwan were lifted.
Law, who has been detained since June 2021 over a national security case, published the apology in Ming Pao on Tuesday night, saying that the Apple Daily reports alleging that Xiang and Kung were Chinese intelligence agents were “completely incorrect and seriously untrue.”
Law was one of six Apple Daily staff who pleaded guilty in a landmark national security case last November to conspiring to commit collusion with a foreign country. He is set to testify during the trial against the newspaper’s founder Jimmy Lai, which is set to get underway in December.
Pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily released its final edition on June 24, 2021, just days after hundreds of police officers raided its newsroom and senior executives were arrested. It was the first case in which authorities cited media articles as potentially violating the national security law.
Lai, 75, has been detained since December 2020. He faces three charges under the Beijing-imposed national security law related to “collusion with foreign forces,” as well as one charge under the colonial-era sedition legislation.
Four-year travel ban
The Apple Daily reports were published between November 23, 2019 and December 7, 2019 – when the pair was first arrested in Taiwan in connection with a Chinese espionage case.
Xiang and Kung, who respectively serve as chairman and an alternative board member of China Innovation Investment Limited – a Hong Kong-listed company, were initially arrested at Taoyuan International Airport in November 2019 as they were about to fly to Hong Kong.
Their arrests came after Wang Liqiang, a self-professed Chinese spy-turned asylum seeker in Australia, named Xiang’s investment firm in allegations about Chinese efforts to influence Taiwanese elections and interfere in Hong Kong affairs, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA).
No charges were filed against them in the espionage case, but a travel ban was kept in place, as they were awaiting trial in a separate money laundering case that prosecutors brought against them in April 2021.
Xiang and Kung were cleared of the charges when the Taipei District Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence. But the prosecution appealed that decision and took the case to the Taiwan High Court which upheld the ruling but retained the travel ban for another eight months.
They eventually returned to Hong Kong last week, after nearly four years in Taiwan, CNA reported.
‘Completely incorrect and seriously untrue’
In the apology, Law spoke on behalf of the defunct media outlet in saying that no “prior verification, investigation, or citation” were made before publishing the “false news reports.”
He also said it was untrue that Xiang and Kung were Chinese intelligence officers acting under instructions from the Communist Party of China, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), or the PLA General Staff Department.
“Therefore, I hereby apologize to the above-mentioned companies, Mr. Xiang Xin and Ms. Kung Ching, for the above completely incorrect and seriously untrue report,” the statement read.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers, led to hundreds of convictions amid new legal precedents, whilst dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs, despite an overall rise in crime.
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