Pence, Pompeo figure in Lai Trial

Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's instructions to Apple Daily's English edition were meant to promote an anti-China atmosphere and sanctions against China and Hong Kong by the United States and other Western countries, the court heard yesterday.

On the 15th day of Lai's trial at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Court, former Apple Daily publisher and prosecution witness Cheung Kim-hung testified that Lai also directed his assistant Mark Simon to invite, though unsuccessfully, former US Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to subscribe to the newspaper.

Apple Daily's English edition was launched in May 2020 with a focus on the United States.

Earlier evidence disclosed that Lai created in mid-May 2020 a WhatsApp chat group called "English News" consisting of Cheung, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man, editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-Kwong and digital director Nick Cheung Chi-wai.

Cheung said Lai had instructed that the English edition only included content from the Chinese version and opinions supportive of Hong Kong, without the need for a balanced view; thus, negative news about China was selected for it.

When asked by national security judge Alex Lee Wan-tang about Lai's intention, Cheung said Lai wanted to present China as a state "suppressing human rights and of dishonesty" to overseas readers.

Cheung said Lai asked to include Covid-related news in the English edition, saying Lai believed an anti-China atmosphere would be crucial for Americans during the pandemic.

Cheung said Lai hoped the newspaper would influence public opinion in the United States and lead to actions by the US to protect Hong Kong and Apple Daily.

When the English edition's website was launched on May 25, 2020, Lai texted Cheung a message asking him to be its publisher.

Cheung clarified he never took on the role, saying it was former Apple Daily editorial writer Fung Wai-kong who managed the English edition, selected news articles for translation, running an external translation team, and communicated with writers for the edition.

In addition, chat records from the English News group revealed that Lai instructed Nick Cheung to add the English edition to the newspaper's mobile app, emphasizing the political protection that subscriptions from US political figures would provide.

Lai mentioned that he had instructed his assistant Simon to invite former US President Donald Trump, Pompeo and Pence to subscribe to the English edition. But the plan failed because payment records of the trio could not be retained on the Apple Daily website.

On June 1, 2020, Nick Cheung said in the group chat that Luke de Pulford, commissioner of the British Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, promoted the English edition on Twitter (now X), and that Pulford was interested in writing a column.

But Cheung said Pulford did not write for the newspaper in the end.

Apple Daily's app was also available in the United Kingdom on the same day, but it failed to launch in European Union countries due to privacy issues.

A separate app "Apple Daily North America" was available for US and Canadian readers, Cheung said.

Cheung confirmed that Nick Cheung told the group on July 3, 2020, that the English edition had over 300,000 active users.

Meanwhile, on June 30, 2020, Nick Cheung wrote in the group chat that Lai proposed to run on Twitter (now X) a live stream session later renamed "Live Chat with Jimmy Lai."

Asked why he wrote in the group chat to ask whether the program would start after the national security law was enacted, Cheung said he thought Lai was eager to discuss the consequences the law could cause to Hong Kong and Apple Daily.

Lai also instructed Cheung to contact a woman named Lucia, whom Cheung said was an employee of a Taiwan-based animation studio owned by Lai, and she later provided advice on the livestream.

The court heard the program invited former Director of the American Institute in Taiwan Raymond Burghardt for a livestream on July 30, 2020.

The trial was adjourned to today.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com