HONG KONG: Hong Kong democrat Jimmy Lai testified on Wednesday for the first time in his landmark national security trial, saying he had never tried to influence the foreign policy of countries such as the United States, towards China and Hong Kong.

The arrest of Lai, 76, a British and Hong Kong citizen and a founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, is considered one of the most high-profile under a sweeping China-imposed national security law. His testimony comes just a day after Hong Kong jailed 45 pro-democracy activists for up to 10 years in a separate national security case.

Lai has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material. During the trial it was alleged that Lai and others had requested an organisation or foreign country, chiefly the United States “to impose sanctions or blockade, or engage in other hostile activities” on the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.

One example of Lai’s alleged collusion was meetings in July 2019 with then US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the political crisis in Hong Kong as mass pro-democracy and anti-China protests intensified.

Under oath in court on Wednesday, Lai denied asking anything specific of Pence. “I would not dare to ask the vice president to do anything. I would just relay to him what happened in Hong Kong when he asked me,” Lai told the court.

Lai said he had asked Pompeo: “Not to do something but to say something. To voice ... support for Hong Kong.” On Taiwan, Lai said he had sought to connect former US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz and retired US general Jack Keane to an interlocutor for former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen.

“Tsai and myself are friends, so we always talk about US policy,” he told the court, explaining that he had sought in this way to set up an unofficial channel between then US President Donald Trump and the Tsai administration to bolster mutual understanding.

In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman said no one could engage in illegal activities and escape legal sanction. “Jimmy Lai is the main planner and participant in the anti-China and anti-Hong Kong incident, and is the agent and proxy of the anti-China forces,” Lin Jian, told reporters in relation to Lai’s trial.

Lai, however, told the high court how his own guiding principles were aligned through his newspaper with the people of Hong Kong, namely a belief in the rule of law and freedoms including those of speech, religion and assembly. “We were always in support of movements for freedom,” Lai, wearing a grey blazer and spectacles, told a packed courtroom. He added that he opposed Hong Kong and Taiwan independence.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2024