As the founder of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai cut an unusual figure: a rebellious tycoon who was not afraid to march with anti-government demonstrators and openly criticize China’s ruling Communist Party.
But as he testified for the first time at his landmark national security trial on Wednesday, Mr. Lai eschewed his confrontational image. The jailed media mogul distanced himself from some of the editorial decisions at his former newspaper. He denied having close relationships with Western politicians who prosecutors accuse him of colluding with. And he dismissed the idea of Hong Kong or Taiwanese independence from China as “crazy.”
The far more measured approach from a man who once told China’s former premier, Li Peng, to “drop dead” in a magazine column, reflects the stakes involved in his high-profile case, for which he faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Mr. Lai, 77, is accused of being the mastermind behind anti-government protests that swept across Hong Kong in 2019. Prosecutors have charged him with conspiring and colluding with “foreign forces” to undermine Beijing’s authority over Hong Kong.
Mr. Lai, who has pleaded not guilty, has been in jail for nearly four years. Until Wednesday, he hadn’t spoken publicly about the accusations against him through multiple trials, and his testimony, expected to last several weeks, could be the last time he is able to do so.
His case has captured worldwide attention as a symbol of Hong Kong’s political transformation since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 to bring an end to the social unrest. The authorities have used the law to crack down on rights that had long distinguished Hong Kong from mainland China, such as freedoms of speech and assembly.
Western governments, including the United States and Britain, have condemned Mr. Lai’s arrest and called for his release. President-elect Donald J. Trump said last month in a podcast interview that he would “100 percent” get Mr. Lai out of prison, adding that it would be “easy.”
Mr. Lai’s testimony came a day after a national security court handed down prison sentences ranging from just over four years to 10 years for 45 former pro-democracy lawmakers and activists.
Prosecutors have argued that Mr. Lai was a “radical political figure” who led a global campaign to get foreign governments to target China and Hong Kong, a city of more than seven million, with sanctions in response to moves by the authorities to crush dissent.
Throughout his testimony, he made light of his meetings with several American politicians and denied he had asked them for political favors beyond voicing support for Hong Kong. He described his conversations with the former national security adviser, John Bolton, as general “chit chat.” He said donations of between $20,000 and $50,000 to American think tanks were “too small to even be mentioned,” he said.
He described being in a meeting with Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, where he barely spoke and didn’t listen “very intently.”
And when asked if he ever appealed to foreign figures, including then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to influence government policy in China and Hong Kong, Mr. Lai said: “Never.”
Mr. Lai also faces a colonial-era sedition charge over material published in his Apple Daily tabloid. He sought to defend his intentions in running the paper, saying the now shuttered publication reflected the values of the Hong Kong people. China has accused the tabloid of spreading “fake news” and “hate speech,” and instigating “Hong Kong independence.”
“All I was doing was carrying a torch to the reality,” Mr. Lai said, when asked whether he ever intended to “pollute the minds of his readers,” as the prosecution had alleged.
“The more information you have, the more you’re in the know, the more you are free,” Mr. Lai said in a packed courtroom. He described the newspaper’s core values as including the pursuit of democracy and freedom of speech, religion and assembly.
Mr. Lai was not always thought of as a political firebrand. For years, he embodied Hong Kong’s rags-to-riches success; an immigrant from the mainland who worked at a factory and later made a fortune founding the clothing brand, Giordano.
His politics hardened after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown that killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of pro-democracy demonstrators. Shortly after, he turned to publishing by launching Next Magazine in 1990 and Apple Daily in 1995.
Apple Daily was at the forefront of the 2019 demonstrations, amplifying protest slogans and publishing editorials and cartoons urging people in Hong Kong to join the movement.
Giving evidence Wednesday, he pushed back against the testimony of a former deputy at the newspaper, who was a witness for the prosecution. That deputy had said that after Mr. Lai was arrested under the national security law, the tycoon had passed on instructions to run the newspaper as before.
“I had written to them, asking them not to take risks,” Mr. Lai said. “If I told them ‘Don’t be scared,’ it’s on the condition that they don’t take risks.”
Six senior employees from Apple Daily and its parent company, Next Digital, earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit collusion under the national security law. They await sentencing after the trial concludes. Among them, three have testified for the prosecution.
Eric Lai, a Hong Kong law expert at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the defense team tried to poke holes in the prosecution’s case by asserting that Apple Daily’s intentions were good, and that meetings with overseas figures were lawful.
“Jimmy Lai’s testimony shows that the charge of colluding with foreign forces under the national security law is so broad and unreasonable that it criminalizes ordinary exchanges and communication with people overseas,” Eric Lai said.
China has accused Mr. Lai of advocating secession. During the trial, Mr. Lai said he disagreed with movements seeking independence for Hong Kong and Taiwan, the self-governed island democracy China claims as its territory, saying they were “too crazy to think about.”
“I know what he is doing is the right thing and I am very proud of him,” said his son, Sebastien Lai, 30, who has led an international campaign from overseas to free his father. “My father is a very strong person, mentally and spiritually. But he’s been in there for almost four years. It’s completely inhumane.”
Concern is growing for Mr. Lai’s health given his advanced age. Mr. Lai has diabetes and often spends 23 hours a day living in solitary confinement.
The Hong Kong government said in a statement on Sunday that Mr. Lai was receiving “appropriate treatment and care” and that Mr. Lai had asked to be held in solitary confinement.
When Mr. Lai, wearing a brown blazer and green sweater over a white dress shirt, was brought into the courtroom, he waved at his wife and daughter in the public gallery.
Speaking from Washington, D.C., Sebastien Lai said that he had considered the possibility that he might never hear from his father again after the trial ends.
“The case is very urgent,” he said. “Who knows how much time he has left.”
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