When Vice-Premier Han Zheng said the new National Security Law for Hong Kong targets only “a small group of people”, few doubted he had in mind such individuals as Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily and main shareholder of its stock exchange-listed parent company, Next Digital.

Sure enough, Lai is now in detention, awaiting trial on allegations of fraud and perverting the course of justice, as well as charges relating to foreign collusion under the National Security Law, which carry substantial prison terms if convicted.

Few people, though, had anticipated the authorities would extend the hunt so quickly to include Lai’s top lieutenants. Five of them were arrested under the security law following police raids at their homes and Apple Daily’s headquarters last week.

The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Ryan Law Wai-kwong, and Cheung Kim-hung, CEO of Next Digital, were charged and denied bail. However, Associate Publisher Chan Pui-man, Digital Platform Director Cheung Chi-wai, and Next Digital Chief Financial Officer Royston Chow Tat-kuen were allowed to post bail.

By cutting off the head of the snake, as the old Chinese saying goes, as well as freezing some company assets and banning banks from dealing with several associated companies under the parent Next Digital, the anti-government newspaper faces permanent closure. In one fell swoop, the city’s most prominent anti-China media group may be laid to rest soon.

But before jumping to the conclusion that Next Digital is being persecuted in Hong Kong, it’s worth remembering that it was chased out of Taiwan, the self-styled “democracy and bastion of free press”, years ago by the island’s regulators and governing bodies. By 2012, the then-Next Media Group had withdrawn from the Taiwan market and sold its operations involving the island’s edition of Apple Daily, Sharp Daily, Next Weekly and the Next TV cable network. Their sensationalism, overtly sexualized photos and political agitation proved too much for the Taiwan reading public.

Hong Kong has shown to be far more tolerant than ostensibly democratic Taiwan, and has been forced to act only after the role the media group played in the 2019 protests and unrest. For many years, the great and the good of the city were scared of provoking Apple Daily and its now-defunct Next Magazine lest their journalists hound them and write unfavorable stories about them

Hong Kong has shown to be far more tolerant than ostensibly democratic Taiwan, and has been forced to act only after the role the media group played in the 2019 protests and unrest. For many years, the great and the good of the city were scared of provoking Apple Daily and its now-defunct Next Magazine lest their journalists hound them and write unfavorable stories about them.

Next is no ordinary news group, nor is Lai just another rich media tycoon. After a few years of operating profitably by running tabloid-style crime stories and sensationalized sex scandals, it turned overtly political and transitioned seamlessly into an outright anti-Beijing platform that has fueled local sentiments and prejudice against the Chinese mainland, especially its visiting tourists.

Reports and columns have openly encouraged people to join anti-government protests, including the violent unrest of 2019, and urged Western governments, especially the United States, to impose sanctions against Hong Kong’s trade status, as well as the city’s top officials and central government officials. Through the months of violent protests in 2019, the newspaper praised young protesters, even those who ran riot and went on a violent rampage against people and property.

Since financial statements were leaked during the 2014 protests, Lai has been revealed to be the main financial backer of most of the anti-government or self-claimed pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong. Virtually every well-known political figure and grouping from the so-called yellow, or anti-government, camp has received some cash donations over the years, some of them on a regular basis. Such donations sometimes ran to millions of dollars. Effectively, the media boss funded the anti-government activists, who then organized protests and other forms of resistance — some of them ending violently with clashes with police. Next Digital’s various news outlets encouraged more people to join the protests and then reported on the aftermath. The reports and photos usually exaggerated the sizes of protest crowds and downplayed their violence, especially during the 2019 unrest, except when it was the police’s anti-riot response.

Through his long-time former aide Mark Simon, a former US naval intelligence officer, Lai has enjoyed a close association, even friendship, with several senior Republican Party figures. But because of his anti-China stance, US Democratic Party leaders have also frequently voiced support and provided political cover for him. In 2013, former US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz met Lai and Simon in Myanmar. The following year, Wolfowitz — who was one of the architects of the disastrous US invasion of Iraq — was seen visiting Lai on a yacht in Sai Kung, reportedly for five hours.

Since the legal crackdown against the Next media group and its top personnel, local critics and some Western governments, especially Washington, have accused the Hong Kong government and police of undermining press freedom. That is blatantly unfair and biased.

Lai’s news group is one of a kind, but not necessarily in a good way. Hiding behind press freedom and democratic slogans, it has prejudiced and misinformed an entire generation of young people through reports and op-ed columns that make no pretense at objectivity or impartiality; rather, many openly call for political incitement and agitation. It’s doubtful such a media group — Apple Daily first published in 1995 — could have existed for so long in any Western democratic country with anti-subversion and homeland security laws such as those in the US.

Taking advantage of the extraordinary freedoms that post-1997 Hong Kong has provided and guaranteed above and beyond any enjoyed by most Western democratic countries, Apple Daily and its sister publications have been able to pursue a political agenda very much in line with the anti-China foreign policy of the US and other Western governments.

The author is a freelance writer and a veteran Hong Kong journalist. 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.