Lai met with anti-China US lawmaker one day before sanctions bill passed

Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying received an anti-China US lawmaker in Hong Kong with former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang and former Civic Party lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang the day before the US had passed a bill to sanction Hong Kong, the court heard yesterday.

The newspaper's associate publisher Chan Pui-man, 53, continued to give testimony on the trial of Lai, 76, at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Court.

The prosecution showed Chan two photos from Lai's phone. The first was sent to Lai from Kwok on October 13, 2019, when the China-sanctioned US Republican senator Ted Cruz, Lai, Anson Chan, Kwok and former lawmaker Charles Mok Nai-kwong took the photo at the Hong Kong Club in Central.

The second photo captures the meeting between Lai, Democratic Party founding chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming, Kwok's assistant Janet Pang Ho-yan and then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi at the American Club Hong Kong in Central.

Chan confirmed an article on the meeting between Lai, Anson Chan, Kwok and Cruz in Hong Kong that was published by Apple Daily on October 13, 2019, which included a photo of Cruz.

The newspaper also issued a push notification to its app users on November 28, 2019, after then-US president Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

Chan agreed that it had been "big news."

Apple Daily had also published protest-related special issues including pictures encouraging violence, and claimed net proceeds would be donated to the defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund.

Chan recalled the special issue - Freedom 2019 Summer - received an enthusiastic response and was printed thrice between September and October 2019, each copy priced at HK$10.

The special issue's first print on September 20, 2019, had soon sold out, Chan said, and the newspaper proceeded with a second print upon the approval of Apple Daily senior management, including former publisher Cheung Kim-hung.

The Apple Daily app had a bilingual electronic book version, Chan confirmed, adding the app also issued a push notification to "push the special issue to the international community."

Lai also instructed Apple Daily to publish an open letter from Hong Kong Watch founder Benedict Rogers, which suggested protesters had no choice but to adopt violence as the government was not listening to people's opinions and provoked protesters to continue with the unrest.

But Chan said the newspaper didn't end up publishing the full letter.

On January 13, 2020, Chan forwarded former Apple Daily editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee a summary of a lunchbox meeting gathered by Cheung, and asked Yeung about the latest list of editorial writers.

Chan explained that the newspaper hoped to invite "good authors" from other pro-democracy media such as Initium Media, Stand News and Citizen News.

"I was unfamiliar with the writers of Apple Daily's column section so I wanted to see if there's any difference among the writers [from different media]," she said.

Today's session will end at 1.30pm and will resume on February 19.