HONG KONG — Former Hong Kong writer Jimmy Lai denied in his landmark nationwide safety trial on Wednesday he had requested then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence after which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to take motion in opposition to the town and China at conferences with them through the territory’s anti-government protests in 2019.
Lai, founding father of the now-shuttered Apple Each day pro-democracy newspaper, was arrested in 2020 within the crackdown that adopted the protests. He’s accused of colluding with overseas forces to hazard nationwide safety and conspiring with others to concern seditious publications. If convicted, he faces as much as life in jail.
He testified about his conferences with former U.S. officers and gave particulars about his alleged abroad political connections with folks within the U.S., Britain and Taiwan, together with Taiwan ex-President Tsai Ing-wen and Hong Kong’s final British governor, Chris Patten.
However the media tycoon, who additionally describes himself as a businessman and social activist, mentioned he by no means tried to affect overseas coverage on Hong Kong or China by way of the folks he met abroad or ask them to take motion in opposition to them.
Lai’s case is extensively seen as a measure of media freedom and judicial independence within the Asian monetary hub.
Lai testified in English that he requested Pence to voice his help for Hong Kong, however not for the U.S. authorities to take any motion, saying, “It’s past me.”
Throughout the identical journey to the U.S., Lai additionally met with Pompeo and mentioned the state of affairs in Hong Kong with him, noting it was the same dialog to the one he had with Pence, he mentioned.
When Lai’s lawyer, Steven Kwan, requested him whether or not he had requested the U.S. to do one thing at that assembly, Lai mentioned “to not do one thing however to say one thing. To voice out its help for Hong Kong.”
Beijing promised to retain the previous British colony’s civil liberties for 50 years when it returned to Chinese language rule in 1997. However critics say that promise has develop into threadbare below the rubric of sustaining nationwide safety.
Authorities have used a Beijing-imposed nationwide safety regulation to prosecute lots of Hong Kong’s main activists, together with Lai and 45 democracy advocates who have been sentenced to a number of years in jail on Tuesday. Different pro-democracy figures have been compelled into self-exile or silenced. Dozens of civil society teams have disbanded below the specter of the regulation.
Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist that the regulation restored stability to the town following the 2019 protests.
Prosecutors have alleged that Lai requested overseas nations, particularly the US, to take actions in opposition to Beijing “below the guise of combating for freedom and democracy.”
They pointed to Lai’s conferences with Pence, Pompeo and U.S. senators in July 2019 to debate a now-withdrawn extradition invoice that sparked the anti-government protests. They allege that Lai sought help from the U.S. in sanctioning mainland Chinese language and Hong Kong leaders who cracked down on the motion.
Dozens of individuals stood within the rain to safe a seat within the courtroom, together with former Apple Each day reader William Wong, who mentioned he needed to remind Lai that Hong Kongers haven’t forgotten him.
“I haven’t seen him for just a few months. I do know he’ll testify himself, so I need to encourage him,” mentioned Wong, 64.
Upon getting into the court docket, Lai waved and smiled at his members of the family, who sat subsequent to the town’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen.
Throughout the listening to, Lai mentioned that he had launched former U.S. officers Paul Wolfowitz and Jack Keane to Tsai — whom he referred to as a good friend. It was as a result of Tsai needed to know extra concerning the considering of then President Donald Trump’s administration again then, he mentioned.
Lai mentioned that she knew he was “supportive of Trump” and he or she thought he knew quite a bit concerning the U.S. due to his hyperlinks with U.S. suppose tanks. However he by no means communicated with Trump, he mentioned.
He mentioned he needed to assist Taiwan to know the right way to higher cope with the U.S., as a result of the island was the one democracy of Chinese language folks.
However Lai rejected the concept of Hong Kong independence, saying it was a “loopy” concept and he by no means allowed his workers or the newspaper to say it.
He mentioned he broke into the media world as a result of “to take part in delivering freedom” was an excellent concept for him.
“The extra you recognize, the extra you might be free,” he mentioned.
He mentioned the core values of Apple Each day have been the core values of the folks of Hong Kong, together with the rule of regulation, freedom and the pursuit of democracy.
In Might 2020, a month earlier than the safety regulation took impact, Lai took up the function of government chairman of Subsequent Digital, the mother or father firm of Apple Each day.
“I believe it’s proper for me to take up the duty of the corporate if something occurs to it as an proprietor,” he mentioned.
The U.S. and U.Ok. governments and a gaggle of impartial U.N. human rights specialists have referred to as for Lai’s launch.
Trump was requested on a podcast earlier than his reelection this month whether or not he would speak to Chinese language President Xi Jinping to hunt Lai’s launch, and he replied: “100%, I’ll get him out.”
Hong Kong chief John Lee mentioned that mutual respect is essential for the event of commerce relations and there must be no interference in native affairs.
U.Ok. Prime Minister Keir Starmer additionally raised issues over Lai’s detention to Xi in a gathering through the Group of 20 summit in Brazil.
Hong Kong’s safety minister Chris Tang maintained the prosecution was based mostly on info.
Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, mentioned on Friday that his father’s therapy in jail is “inhumane.” “My father is now 77 and has spent almost 4 years in a maximum-security jail in solitary confinement,” he mentioned within the assertion launched by Britain-based regulation agency Doughty Road Chambers.
On Sunday, the Hong Kong authorities condemned some members of the regulation agency for what it referred to as spreading misinformation. It mentioned the separation of Lai from different inmates “has been made at his personal request” and was authorized by jail authorities. It added judges stay impartial and partial when dealing with nationwide safety instances.
On the eve of the court docket listening to, some U.S. lawmakers gathered with the youthful Lai in a restaurant close to the U.S. Capitol in Washington in a present of help for the writer.
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Didi Tang contributed to this report from Washington.
