Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing political party has staged a protest outside the city’s British consulate after UK leader Rishi Sunak described media mogul Jimmy Lai’s national security trial as “politically motivated.”
Six members of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the party that commands the most seats in the city’s legislature, gathered outside the British consulate in Admiralty on Friday. They slammed the British prime minister’s remarks on Lai’s trial last week as “blatant interference” with the course of justice.
“We are here to strongly condemn the British prime minister for his blatant interference with the course of our justice,” Holden Chow, vice-chairperson of the DAB and a lawmaker, said.
Chow said the UK leader’s comments, as well as British Foreign Secretary David Cameron meeting with Lai’s son, Sebastien, in December were attempts to influence the ongoing trial. The UK called for Lai’s immediate release when his trial began in December, while Cameron met with Sebastien Lai, who is leading an international campaign urging his father’s release.
“This is done for the purpose of jeopardising Hong Kong’s safety and to suppress China. This is unscrupulous actions,” he said.
Lai, the highest-profile figure to stand trial under the Beijing-imposed national security law, is accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, an offence that could see him jailed for life if convicted. Separately, he stands accused of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under the colonial-era sedition law.
Brave Chan, also a vice-chairperson of the DAB and a lawmaker, accused the UK of double standards and “smearing” the city’s national security law, which also criminalises subversion, secession, and terrorism.
“The UK government also… enacted their own national security law lately which safeguards their own national security against espionage and collusion with foreign powers,” he said in Cantonese. “This is sheer hypocrisy.”
The pair, along with DAB legislators Chan Hok-fung and Ben Chan, and two newly-elected district councillors in December’s overhauled local elections, urged the UK to stop “covering up” for Lai and refrain from interfering with Hong Kong and China’s affairs.
They added that the national security law had brought peace and stability to the city and dismissed Sunak’s criticism of the law as violating the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
The lawmakers criticised the UK diplomatic mission for not sending a representative to receive their letter. Instead, they inserted the letter into a mailbox outside the consulate.
‘Champion of free speech’
Sunak was the first Western leader to openly back Lai in his close-watched trial.
“Jimmy Lai’s prosecution is politically motivated. He has faced multiple prosecutions in an attempt to silence and discredit him,” Sunak wrote in a letter to Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong before the former colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
The letter was shared on social media by David Alton, a member of UK’s House of Lords, on Wednesday.
In it, the prime minister called Lai a “champion of free speech” and said his ongoing trial “will remain a priority” for the British government.
It followed an earlier call from his administration and the US urging the immediate release of Lai, which Beijing slammed as “blatant political manoeuvring.”
The Hong Kong government on Thursday also “strongly opposed” Sunak’s comments on Lai’s trial. A government spokesperson told HKFP that any attempt to interfere with court procedures should be condemned.
Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy tabloid Apply Daily, is facing two conspiracy charges of colluding with foreign forces over allegedly calling for countries to impose sanctions against mainland China and Hong Kong.
The 76-year-old is also charged with conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era sedition law, allegedly by using Apple Daily to incite public hatred towards authorities in the wake of the 2019 protests and unrest.
He has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
The trial, which is expected to last for 80 days, is being framed as a bellwether for press freedom in Hong Kong. So far, the court has heard allegations that the former media mogul was a “mastermind” who orchestrated the alleged conspiracies, providing instructions and financial support to his aides to lobby for international sanctions.
The prosecution has named several British nationals, including financier Bill Browder, and human rights activists Benedict Rogers and Luke de Pulford, as Lai’s “co-conspirators” or “agents.” The UK said it had pushed for consular access to Lai, who also holds British citizenship, but to no avail.
Immediately following DAB’s protest on Friday, a local group consisting of a dozen middle-aged people also demonstrated outside the British consulate, where they tore a British flag and demanded that the UK stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs.
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