The English-language edition of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper was “a lot more extreme” in its anti-China stance than its Chinese-language publication, the shuttered outlet’s former publisher has testified during the national security trial against the paper’s founder Jimmy Lai.
Cheung Kim-hung told the court on Wednesday that the English-language edition of Apple Daily was an attempt to stoke anti-China sentiment in the US, which was already prevalent after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Apple Daily’s English edition was launched in May 2020, a month ahead of the enactment of the national security law, under which Lai has been charged.
“My feeling was that Mr Lai wanted to provide the US with more justifications to carry out hostile actions against China,” Cheung said in Cantonese on the 15th day of the closely-watched trial at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building.
Cheung, who was continuing his testimony against his former boss, earlier told the court that Lai had intended the newspaper’s English edition to reach a US audience, hoping that American readers could become a “lever” between Apple Daily and US politics.
Lai, 76, had told senior editorial staff via a WhatsApp group that the English edition should focus on news and feature stories in mainland China, Cheung said. The media mogul also said that such stories were “what Americans needed to read the most” given a strong anti-China sentiment during the pandemic, Cheung added.
“Mr Lai held the view that the Chinese Communist Party suppressed human rights, concealed [the severity] of the pandemic, and lacked integrity,” the former publisher said. “Therefore he was portraying the [CCP] as such to foreign readers.”
The prosecution displayed WhatsApp messages from the group, in which Lai allegedly said that the newspaper’s English-language edition was “not trying to strike a balance but [to represent] the point of view of the people on the side of protecting [Hong Kong].”
“When we choose writers we don’t have to think about giving foreigners a balanced view of what happens here… We only concentrate in our Apple Daily [Hong Kong] view, a general view of the yellow side,” the message read. Yellow was the colour favoured by pro-democracy protesters during the 2019 protests and unrest.
The court was also shown another message allegedly sent by Ryan Law, then editor-in-chief of Apple Daily, who was in charge of the outlet’s online publication, which suggested that the English-language edition should select news about human rights infringements in China and Hong Kong, and “China’s damage to Hong Kong’s economy and finance.”
Topics suggested in Law’s Chinese-language message included: “June Fourth,” referring to the date of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown; “Ren Zhiqiang, incarcerated;” and “Hong Kong companies dyed red.” Cheung said these topics had been selected according to Lai’s editorial policy.
“No positive news whatsoever about China, but only negative news,” High Court judge Alex Lee, who has been handpicked by the government to preside over national security cases, noted. Cheung responded affirmatively.
In a departure from Hong Kong’s common law tradition, the High Court case is being heard by a panel of three national security judges rather than a jury.
Cheung is among six senior employees at Apple Daily who have pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces. They have been remanded in custody for over two years and will be sentenced after Lai’s trial concludes.
Lai has denied two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law – which also criminalises secession, subversion, and terrorism – and one count of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era legislation.
The 76-year-old faces up to life imprisonment if convicted.
After Cheung, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee are also set to testify for the prosecution.
Political protection
Lai also instructed Mark Simon, his US-based personal assistant, to invite then-US president Donald Trump and other senior officials to subscribe to the newspaper’s English edition, which would yield “the maximum level of political protection” to Apple Daily, the court heard.
But the attempt failed because the US politicians “should not” leave any transaction records on Apple Daily’s website, Cheung said, citing a conversation with Simon.
Lai first came up with the idea of launching an English-language edition of Apple Daily following suggestions from former columnist Fung Hei-kin, according to WhatsApp messaging records submitted to the court.
‘Live Chat with Jimmy Lai’
The prosecution on Wednesday also took aim at a series of “Live Chat with Jimmy Lai” interviews, hosted by Lai and featuring mostly foreign guest speakers with backgrounds ranging from politics, academics, and activism.
The video interviews largely addressed the political situation in Hong Kong after June 2020, when the security law was imposed by Beijing following a year of pro-democracy protests.
During their opening statement, the prosecution alleged that these video talks were evidence of Lai’s connections with foreign elements and a conspiracy to bring about international sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.
The programme was broadcast live on Apple Daily’s website and social media platforms, as well as Lai’s personal Twitter account, the prosecution said.
The court has also heard that Lai was the “mastermind” of the conspiracies, using Apple Daily as a platform and providing instructions and financial support to his aides to lobby for international sanctions.
The trial continues on Thursday with Cheung still taking the witness stand. The prosecution is expected to play clips of the video talk series in court.
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.
Corrections:
25/1/2024 at 12.25 pm: An earlier version of this article stated that Cheung Kim-hung was testifying on Tuesday, when it should have been Wednesday. We regret the error.
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