Media mogul Jimmy Lai was undeterred by the Beijing-imposed national security law, the former publisher of Lai’s shuttered Apple Daily newspaper has testified, saying Lai had vowed to take his push for US sanctions to be placed on mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials “to the extreme.”
Cheung Kim-hung, who pleaded guilty to conspiring with foreign forces and is testifying against his former boss, told the court on Friday that Lai had dismissed concerns about Apple Daily crossing the “red line” after the national security law came into effect in June 2020. Cheung said Lai did not share his worries about Apple Daily being perceived as colluding with foreign forces.
“I remembered Mr Lai responded to me, saying: ‘based on my intuitions from decades of doing business, look at what the [Chinese Communist Party] has done to me’,” Cheung said in Cantonese. “Mr Lai said: ‘I have to take it to the extreme. There’s no backing out for me.'”
On the 17th day of Lai’s closely-watched trial, the prosecution continued to present a series of programmes called “Live Chat with Jimmy Lai,” in which the media mogul discussed current affairs and the security law with overseas politicians, academics, and activists.
The court earlier heard that the videos were broadcast live across Apple Daily’s digital platforms and on Twitter, now known as X, and that it was produced by the newspaper’s digital director Nick Cheung.
WhatsApp messaging records submitted to the court suggested that Nick Cheung had given his colleagues the guests’ names on a weekly basis since July 2020. Guests included Hong Kong’s last British governor Chris Patten, and former US deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz.
In a message sent on November 26, 2020, Nick Cheung said that retired US army general Jack Keane would appear in the programme that day. Both Keane and Wolfowitz have been named as Lai’s “agents” by the prosecution.
“I asked Mr Lai, whether it was too sensitive to invite a retired US general [on the show] at that time?” Cheung, the former publisher, testified at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, where the High Court trial is taking place.
“I took the chance to raise my concerns to [Lai] in the meeting room, when I was seeking his instruction on other matters,” he said.
Lead prosecutor Anthony Chau questioned what was meant by “too sensitive,” to which Cheung said he was referring to “collusion with foreign forces.”
Lai has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the security law and one count of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under colonial-era legislation.
The 76-year-old faces up to life imprisonment if convicted of the national security offence.
Colleagues’ concerns
Former publisher Cheung created a WhatsApp chat group named “National Security Law Response Committee” on June 22, 2020, according to records submitted to the court. Members included senior editorial staff, but Lai was not in the group.
Cheung said that many colleagues had been worried about the possible impact of the security law on Apple Daily. “Some sections even reported that colleagues were frightened and were considering resigning, especially the Hong Kong news and the breaking news sections,” he said.
“We hoped that everyone could communicate their concerns about the impact of the security law on their work at Apple Daily, their worries about where the red line lay,” he added.
But the WhatsApp group soon migrated to instant messaging platform Signal, where a “disappearing messages” function that automatically deleted communication records was available. Cheung said the move was suggested by then executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung to heighten the “confidentiality” of the conversations.
He said that senior staff members discussed whether Apple Daily should give posters containing its logo to major opposition party the Democratic Party as handouts during an annual march on July 1 that year, worrying the move would draw attention.
Messages from Lai were also relayed to the chat group after he was remanded in custody in December 2020.
“To be honest, I don’t recall any message that had to be erased in this group,” the former publisher said.
Cheung is among six senior employees at Apple Daily who have pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces. They have been detained for over two years and will be sentenced after Lai’s trial concludes.
Among them, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee are also set to testify against their ex-boss.
Implement Mr Lai’s instructions
The prosecution on Friday also displayed a message Lai sent to Cheung on June 2, 2020, in which the media mogul requested the newspaper not to follow the editorial line adopted by The New York Times and CNN in reporting about then-US president Donald Trump.
“Apple Daily relies on the support of the Trump administration to survive,” Lai wrote in Chinese.
Cheung said Lai was referring to the support Trump would offer if he decided to impose sanctions on mainland Chinese and local officials.
The witness had earlier testified that Lai ordered the “One Hongkonger, One Letter to Save Hong Kong” petition, which sought to get residents to reach out to the former US president in hopes that Trump would impose sanctions.
Lead prosecutor Chau, before finishing his seven-day examination of Cheung, drew the witness’s attention to 161 articles published by Apple Daily between April 1, 2019, and June 24, 2021. The prosecution has used these articles to build their case that Lai was using Apple Daily as part of a conspiracy to incite hatred against the authorities.
The court has also heard that Lai was the “mastermind” of the alleged conspiracies, using Apple Daily as a platform and providing instructions and financial support to his aides to lobby for international sanctions.
“In your earlier evidence, you said [Lai] made editorial policy for Apple Daily to increase resistance against the Hong Kong government, and on the international front, to use Apple Daily to draw the attention of Western countries, hoping they could take action against the Hong Kong government and central authorities, including sanctioning officials,” Chau told the witness, asking him about the relations between the articles and Lai’s editorial policy.
“These articles were all published under Mr Lai’s editorial policy, stance, and approach,” Cheung said. “As for myself and other senior management members, we were acting according to our roles to implement Mr Lai’s instructions accurately.”
Senior Counsel Robert Pang, the defence’s lead lawyer, is expected to begin questioning Cheung when the trial resumes on Monday.
Lai has been detained since December 2020. He is currently serving a five-year and nine-month sentence in a maximum security facility for a separate fraud case.
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