Media mogul Jimmy Lai urged Hongkongers to be “flexible” after the enactment of Beijing’s national security law, the newspaper founder testified in his collusion trial, but denied he was encouraging active resistance against the authorities.
Detained Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai. File photo: Studio Incendo.
Under the direction of defence counsel Steven Kwan, 77-year-old Lai on Wednesday spent his 15th day giving evidence at the West Kowloon Law Courts. He stands accused of two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law and one charge under a colonial-era sedition law, and faces spending the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
Kwan on Wednesday presented the court with an article written by Lai for Apple Daily, the newspaper he founded, titled “Time is a Weapon.” In it, Lai said that those who remained in Hong Kong would become the “backbone” of the resistance against Beijing.
“Those who stayed behind are the backbone of the resistance movement, and we should treasure our strength,” Lai wrote in the article.
Speaking from the witness stand, Lai denied that he encouraged Hongkongers to resist the government. “No, I just said that what little that remained would be the backbone of the movement, of the society, that we have to treasure our strength,” Lai said.
“I was hoping the movement could go on with a different way of conducting it, but I think it was just wishful thinking — it never happened,” he added.
A national security billboard. Photo: GovHK.
Addressing judge Alex Lee, who asked what Lai meant by “resistance,” the tycoon said he was referring to resistance against China’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s freedoms.
‘Flexibility’ under NSL
Judge Susana D’Almada Remedios then read from the article in which Lai said, “We can retain our strength and fight a long battle,” and asked the tycoon if those words amounted to encouragement. Lai said he was not encouraging anything, and that he was simply stating his thoughts.
Replying to a question from Kwan as to whether his words were a call for violence, Lai said: “No, I was saying we had to be flexible, and [not] be stubborn and insist on our principles.”
Lai was also shown a clip of a livestream on Twitter, now known as X, during which he said: “Hong Kong people should change tactics, be flexible, change their strategy and attitude with skill.” But doing so was challenging, he said, as the national security law’s red lines were “too general and vague.”
Asked whether he advocated breaching the law but concealing it, Lai said he did not. “I just meant being flexible and adapting to the situation,” he said.
Police officers, including those from the Counter Terrorism Response Unit, outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, in Hong Kong, on November 20, 2024, ahead of pre-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai taking the stand for the first time in his national security trial. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Lai on Wednesday also denied that he was advocating for the US to grant Hongkongers political asylum, or to impose sanctions against the bank accounts of Beijing’s liaison office in the city. Calling for sanctions would be “dangerous,” he said, as such acts could be seen as subversion or collusion with foreign forces under the national security law, he said.
Kwan also presented a Signal message from Lai’s aide Mark Simon saying that former US consul general James Cunningham had organised a campaign to lobby Washington to take a hard stance on China, to which Lai replied: “Good to hear”.
Lai said on Wednesday that he was not encouraging the move.
Shown one of his Tweets dated July 2020 in which he described sanctions against Chinese officials as “righteous and effective,” Lai denied that he was encouraging sanctions, and that he was only commenting retrospectively on what had already taken place.
When pressed as to whether he was encouraging further sanctions by making those remarks, Lai said he was not.
Lai denies pushing for decoupling
The Apple Daily founder also denied pushing the US to revoke Hong Kong’s special economic status in 2020, but also said he believed the move would have been “right,” as doing so could close off China’s access to the rest of the world’s finance, technology, and commerce.
Those comments were relayed to Mary Kissel, an advisor to then-US state secretary Mike Pompeo, who had earlier asked Simon for clarification regarding Lai’s take on US-Hong Kong relations.
In court on Wednesday, Lai denied having a direct line of communication with Kissel, as she was in a sensitive position as a White House staffer.
Taking note of the exchanges between Kissel and Lai, judge Lee asked whether Simon was a “conduit” between the two. Judge Esther Toh said that Simon considered himself to be a conduit, as he had said he would relay Lai’s take to Kissel.
La’s testimony continues Thursday.
When Lai’s 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. Three judges – handpicked by Hong Kong’s chief executive to hear national security cases – are presiding over Lai’s trial in the place of a jury, marking a departure from the city’s common law traditions.
