Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has said Donald Trump’s new administration marks a “good start” for US-China relations, but warns against attempts at political “interference.”
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee at the 2024 Policy Address press conference on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday shortly after Trump was sworn in, Lee said that the Hong Kong government would continue to “promote ties and exchanges” with the US under the Republican billionaire’s second presidency.
“With the new president in office, this is a good start for China and US relations,” Lee said in Cantonese, ahead of a meeting with the Executive Council. “Of course, mutual respect and mutual understanding and common will is important.”
Asked about Trump’s earlier remarks about freeing jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the chief executive said: “Any political pressure would constitute a perversion of the course of justice and that should not happen. Therefore, I hope that everyone will not try to interfere in the cases being tried in Hong Kong in any way.”
Lee made similar remarks last November, saying that the US should not interfere in Hong Kong’s internal affairs and that “mutual respect is important,” after Trump said on a podcast that it would be “easy” to free the tycoon.
Lai, 77, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, is currently on trial under the Beijing-imposed national security law. He is accused of taking part in a “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under the security legislation, and conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era law.
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.
“Mutual respect” was important “if a country wants to develop trade relations or normal relations with another economy,” Lee said during the Tuesday press conference.
“Justice in Hong Kong is rock solid. We have a strong and stable legal system and legal foundation. All court trials are conducted in accordance with the law and trial principles, and trials are conducted fairly by judges.“
Speaking in English, he said: “If there is any attempt to interfere with trials in Hong Kong, or officials or people who are involved in administering justice, it won’t work, and we are doing it exactly in the same way in protecting our national security, as other citizens in their own countries.”
Last November, 45 prominent pro-democracy figures were jailed for up to 10 years for conspiring to commit subversion under the security law over their roles in an unofficial primary election in 2020. Their sentencing was met with international criticism, including from the United Nations, which said it “condemned the use of the National Security Law to criminalise activities which are protected under international human rights law, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.”
