HONG KONG – Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai denied in his landmark national security trial on Wednesday he had asked then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to take action against the city and China during the territory's anti-government protests in 2019.
Lai, founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily pro-democracy newspaper, was arrested in 2020 in the crackdown that followed the protests. He is accused of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to issue seditious publications. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
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He testified about his meetings with former U.S. officials and gave details about his alleged political connections with people in the U.S., Britain and Taiwan, including Taiwan ex-President Tsai Ing-wen and Hong Kong’s last British governor, Chris Patten.
The media tycoon, who also describes himself as a businessman and social activist, said he never tried to influence foreign policy on Hong Kong or China through the people he met overseas or ask them to take action against them.
Lai’s case is widely seen as a measure of media freedom and judicial independence in the Asian financial hub.
Lai testified in English that he asked Pence to voice his support for Hong Kong during a 2019 visit to the U.S. But he said he did not ask the U.S. government to take any action, saying, “It’s beyond me.”
During the same trip Lai also met with Pompeo and had a similar discussion about the situation in Hong Kong, he said.
When Lai’s lawyer, Steven Kwan, asked him whether he had requested the U.S. to do something at that meeting, Lai said “not to do something but to say something. To voice out its support for Hong Kong.”
Beijing promised to retain the former British colony’s civil liberties for 50 years when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. But critics say that promise has become threadbare under the rubric of maintaining national security.
Authorities have used a Beijing-imposed national security law to prosecute many of Hong Kong’s leading activists, including Lai and 45 democracy advocates who were sentenced to four to 10 years in prison on Tuesday. Other pro-democracy figures were forced into self-exile or silenced. Dozens of civil society groups have disbanded under the threat of the law.
Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist that the law restored stability to the city following the 2019 protests.
Prosecutors alleged that Lai asked foreign countries, especially the United States, to take actions against Beijing “under the guise of fighting for freedom and democracy.”
They pointed to Lai’s meetings with Pence, Pompeo and U.S. senators in July 2019 to discuss a now-withdrawn extradition bill that sparked the anti-government protests. They allege that Lai sought support from the U.S. in sanctioning mainland Chinese and Hong Kong leaders who cracked down on the movement.
Dozens of people stood in the rain to secure a seat in the courtroom, including former Apple Daily reader William Wong, who said he wanted to remind Lai that Hong Kongers have not forgotten him.
“I haven’t seen him for a few months. I know he will testify himself, so I want to encourage him,” said Wong, 64.
Upon entering the court, Lai waved and smiled at his family members, who sat next to the city’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen.
During the hearing, Lai said that he had introduced former U.S. officials Paul Wolfowitz and Jack Keane to Tsai, whom he called a friend.
Lai said Tsai wanted to know more about the thinking of then President Donald Trump's administration, and knew he was “supportive of Trump." She thought he was familiar with the U.S. because of his links with U.S. think tanks. But he never communicated with Trump, he said.
He said he wanted to help Taiwan to know how to better deal with the U.S., because the island was the only democracy of Chinese people.
But Lai rejected the idea of Hong Kong independence, saying it was a “crazy” idea and he never allowed his staff or the newspaper to mention it.
He said he broke into the media world “to participate in delivering freedom."
“The more you know, the more you are free,” he said, adding that the core values of Apple Daily were the core values of the people of Hong Kong, including the rule of law, freedom and the pursuit of democracy
In May 2020, a month before the security law took effect, Lai took up the role of executive chairman of Next Digital, the parent company of Apple Daily.
The trial will continue on Thursday.
The U.S. and U.K. governments and independent U.N. human rights experts have called for Lai’s release.
Asked before his reelection this month whether he would talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping to seek Lai’s release, Trump said: “100%, I will get him out.”
Hong Kong leader John Lee said that mutual respect is important for the development of trade relations and there should be no interference in local affairs.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also raised concerns over Lai’s detention to Xi in a meeting during the Group of 20 summit in Brazil.
Hong Kong’s security minister Chris Tang maintained the prosecution was based on facts.
Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, said on Friday that his father’s treatment in prison is “inhumane.” “My father is now 77 and has spent nearly four years in a maximum-security prison in solitary confinement,” he said in the statement released by Britain-based law firm Doughty Street Chambers.
On Sunday, the Hong Kong government condemned some members of the law firm for what it called spreading misinformation. It said the separation of Lai from other inmates “has been made at his own request” and was approved by prison authorities. It added judges remain independent and partial when handling national security cases.
Chinese foreign ministry's spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters on Wednesday that Lai is a major mastermind in the rise of anti-China sentiments in Hong Kong and a “pawn of anti-China forces.” He said China firmly opposes the interference of certain countries in its internal affairs.
On the eve of the court hearing, some U.S. lawmakers gathered with the younger Lai in a restaurant near the U.S. Capitol in Washington in a show of support for the publisher.
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Didi Tang contributed to this report from Washington.