Prosecution say Jimmy Lai called for foreign sanctions to prevent China becoming ‘unstoppable’

Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying continuously called on other countries to sanction China in seditious articles published by Apple Daily and said that world peace would not be achieved if China became too strong and unstoppable, the prosecution said as the trial entered the sixth day. 

At the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday, the prosecution continued to present their case. 

The prosecution cited 31 examples that Lai allegedly instructed Apple Daily to make seditious statements against Beijing and the SAR governments, and requested “external involvement” that constituted as acts of collusion. 

The examples included the “Live Chat with Jimmy Lai” online program that discussed sanctions with foreign officials and scholars, Lai’s column “Swim or Sink, Smile”, as well as other commentaries published in Apple Daily’s English edition in 2021 upon Lai’s instruction. 

Seventy-six-year-old Lai also accused Beijing of breaking international conventions by introducing the national security law in Hong Kong, saying that Western countries including the US would impose sanctions and China would hit rock bottom in terms of trade and diplomacy since its economic reform. 

China at the time faced crises and then was the best time to apply pressure and transform China, Lai said. 

Lai said in the articles that countries like Japan and Australia would also have to take a firm stand and impose tech sanctions on China. Joint sanctions could greatly bar further Chinese economic and technological developments, he added. 

Lai also noted that only through international cooperation can the world prohibit the Chinese thoughts and models from spreading across the globe. It was a human rights issue, not limited to Hong Kong. Lai worried that Hong Kong would ultimately become Shenzhen unless it resisted Beijing. 

Deputy director of public prosecutions Anthony Chau Tin-hang said despite knowing the national security law, Lai continued to produce seditious content through Apple Daily articles, and tweets via Lai’s personal Twitter (now X) account. 

Lai alleged on social medial that the national security law was a tool for the Beijing administration to use for suppression, and Hong Kong was destroyed by the legislation. He also accused Beijing of lying about the Covid pandemic. 

Chau also said that when the law first took effect, Lai said in a FOX interview that he denounced the law, as the details were “worse than people’s pessimistic expectations” and that people were nervous about it and “have to be very cautious” when talking online. 

In the FOX interview, Lai said a “sea change” was seen already, as the law overrides the Basic Law, and could no longer protect the business environment in the city, while he had “no confidence that Hong Kong can still maintain its status as an international financial center.” 

On July 23, 2020, he published a post on Twitter stating that the US should allow young Hongkongers to claim asylum. In another post, Lai called on the US government to “find ways to save” the 12 fugitives arrested by the mainland when they tried to escape to Taiwan in 2020. 

Chau also said Lai continued to instruct Apple Daily’s former associate publisher Chan Pui-man and former senior editorial writer Fung Wai-kwong to publish seditious articles on the newspaper’s Chinese print edition and the English digital edition, even after Lai’s arrest in August 2020. 

National security judge Alex Lee Wan-tang asked if Lai was arrested for his seditious charge at the time, which Chau confirmed and later added that the arrest also involved a separate fraud case in a contractual dispute of Apple Daily headquarters in Tseung Kwan O. 

Chau later confirmed that Lai was later released on police bail after the arrest for which Lai has been serving a jail term of five years and nine months since December 2022. 

Lai is wearing a brown leather jacket and a white shirt today, looking calm, smiling, and putting both his thumbs up to his family. He also thanked his supporters in the public gallery.