Jimmy Lai, the billionaire former Hong Kong media mogul, testified in his defence for the first time on Wednesday in a watershed national security trial that could land him in prison for life.
Lai, 77, who is one of the Chinese territory’s most prominent democracy champions and a fierce critic of the Chinese Communist party, said he was motivated by the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre to launch a media empire.
“I though it was a good opportunity for somebody like me, a businessman who made some money . . . to participate in delivering freedom,” said Lai, who faces charges of colluding with foreign forces and conspiracy to publish seditious material.
Lai, a British citizen, added that he “always oppose[d] violence in any form”, referring to Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-government protests. Authorities have sought to cast Lai as a mastermind of the movement.
He also said that the idea of Hong Kong seeking independence from Beijing, as some protesters had advocated, was “too crazy to think about” and “never a reality”.
Lai’s hearing on Wednesday came one day after 45 prominent pro-democracy activists were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison in Hong Kong’s biggest national security trial, which drew condemnation from western governments and human rights groups.
It also coincided with a flagship investment summit that brought some of the biggest Wall Street names to Hong Kong this week. The territory has been fighting to revive its reputation as a global financial hub after Beijing’s political crackdown and coronavirus pandemic restrictions prompted the departure of many foreign businesses.
Lai has already spent more than three years in detention. He was first arrested in 2020 under Beijing’s sweeping national security law, as authorities in Hong Kong cracked down on dissent in the wake of the 2019 protests.
His pro-democracy tabloid, Apple Daily, one of the city’s largest outlets, was forced to shut down the following year after it was raided by police, its assets frozen and senior journalists arrested.
Jimmy Lai biography
1947 — Born in Guangdong province
1960 — Left mainland China for Hong Kong
1981 — Founded fashion retail chain Giordano. He was later forced to sell his shares under pressure from Beijing
1995 — Launched Apple Daily
2020 — Arrested under the Beijing-imposed national security law
2021 — Apple Daily forced to shut
Lai was previously sentenced to five years and nine months last year on separate fraud charges linked to a lease contract for Apple Daily’s headquarters. He has also served a total of 20 months for his involvement in “unauthorised” anti-government protests and Tiananmen vigils in 2019 and 2020. He faces up to life imprisonment on the national security charges.
The prosecution has cited 161 Apple Daily articles and broadcasts as “seditious” and pointed to Lai’s meetings with US officials, including former vice-president Mike Pence and secretary of state Mike Pompeo, as evidence of collusion with foreign forces. Lai was also accused of calling for Washington to impose sanctions on Beijing and Hong Kong.
Lai denied on Wednesday asking Pence or Pompeo to take “action” against Hong Kong in 2019, saying he took the meetings just to “relay” the events occurring in the city.
Western governments have denounced the charges. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer raised the case with China’s President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Brazil this week, saying he was “concerned” about Lai’s “deteriorating” health. Last month, Starmer told parliament the case was a “priority” for the Labour government.
Donald Trump also told a conservative podcast host last month that he would “100 per cent” free Lai if he was elected US president, prompting Hong Kong’s leader John Lee to warn foreign countries against interfering in the territory.
More than 50 people queued for seats in the courtroom’s public gallery early on Wednesday morning for the 93rd day of Lai’s security trial, which is being heard without a jury, by a panel of three government-vetted national security case judges.
The court had initially scheduled 80 days for the trial, but proceedings have been repeatedly delayed. In 2022, Hong Kong authorities moved to block Lai’s attempts to hire UK barrister Tim Owen to represent him. Officials argued that foreign lawyers could pose a national security threat.
Lai’s “due process rights have been violated repeatedly over the course of [the] long-running trial, including his right to pre-trial release, his right to a jury trial and his right to counsel of his own choosing”, said Thomas Kellogg, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Asian Law.
