HONG KONG (WS News) — 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.
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.
