British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently claimed that Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is a guardian of freedom of speech. Western media has also consistently criticized Lai’s national security case as a suppression of freedom of speech. However, according to the testimony of the prosecution witness and former Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung, Lai is not just a media tycoon. In the following instances cited by Cheung, Lai seemed to use media as a platform for personal political advocacy.
According to Cheung’s testimony in court, the 2014 “Occupy Central” movement was a turning point. Prior to 2014, Apple Daily was seen as a tabloid focused on celebrity news. After the “Occupy Central” movement, Lai became actively involved in the newspaper’s operations, using it to call on Hong Kong residents to take to the streets and “fight for democracy”. Cheung pointed out that after the “Occupy Central” movement, Apple Daily became a newspaper opposing the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and confronting the central authorities. The management operated according to Lai’s instructions, Cheung said.
In 2019, Lai instructed Apple Daily to report on the extradition bill amendment, hoping to attract the attention of Western countries and seek assistance from Western politicians, urging them to impose sanctions upon relevant officials of the central and HKSAR governments.
Cheung also said that in March 2019 the former chief secretary for administration Anson Chan Fang On-sang visited the United States and was received by then-vice-president Mike Pence. Cheung testified that Lai demanded that this news should have the maximum impact. Cheung complied with Lai’s instructions and placed this news on the front page of Apple Daily, highlighted it on its website, and pushed it to Apple Daily readers via mobile phones.
On April 26, 2019, Lai instructed Cheung to use news of Lam Wing-kee, the former shop manager of Causeway Bay Books who had fled to Taiwan, to promote the large-scale protest on April 28. Lai demanded that Lam’s news be featured on the front page of Apple Daily and include a phone interview with Lam. Cheung who was in Taiwan at that time, wrote the article on Lam and asked the then-Apple Daily editor-in-chief in Hong Kong, Ryan Law Wai-kwong, to publish it online as soon as possible. Apple Daily’s headline on April 27, 2019, featured the interview with Lam, calling for Hong Kong residents to “defend Hong Kong” and take to the streets.
Even after the above reports were published, Lai still apparently believed that the atmosphere of the protests was not enthusiastic enough and asked Cheung for suggestions. Lai later said that he had commissioned Benedict Rogers, the founder of Hong Kong Watch in the United Kingdom, to interview former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten. This interview was published online on April 27, 2019, and became the main headline of Apple Daily on the day of the protest (April 28, 2019).
On June 13, 2019, Lai instructed Cheung to write the Chinese calligraphy for “anti-extradition” and prepare to print 100,000 banners to distribute during the protest. However, because someone committed suicide, the 100,000 banners were not distributed with Apple Daily.
In July 2019, Apple Daily’s website launched a paid subscription edition, with a processing fee of HK$3 (38 cents) for each subscriber. Cheung suggested to Lai that HK$1 could be allocated to support the “anti-extradition” fund. In September 2019, the online version of Apple Daily gained 300,000 subscribers within five days. Following Cheung’s suggestion, Lai announced that a HK$300,000 check would be issued to the “anti-extradition” fund. One has to ask if the owners of Western media groups such as The Washington Post or The New York Times do the same in the United States?
Was Apple Daily, under Lai’s control, objectively reporting or subjectively fueling the entire anti-government political movement? If the answer is the latter, then the comment made by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Lai’s case is completely unfounded
In July 2019, Lai visited the US and met with Pence and then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Cheung stated that Lai appeared very excited upon returning to Hong Kong. Since then, Lai openly and repeatedly mentioned “sanctioning Hong Kong officials”. After the visit, Lai instructed Apple Daily on editorial direction, including showing sympathy toward protesters in its reports and blaming the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the entire protest movement. Lai also requested the addition of an interview program with protesters and opposition figures. Cheung said he believes that Lai wanted to generate sympathy among the public for the protesters and fuel the entire protest movement.
In late May 2020, Lai suddenly proposed the establishment of an English edition of Apple Daily, hoping that Apple Daily could expand to the US and that American readers could become leverage for Apple Daily and US politics. Cheung claimed that Lai requested the writers for the English version of Apple Daily should hold a biased stance, and not produce pro-China articles. Lai also requested that Fung Wai-kong, who had resigned as managing editor of Apple Daily, return to become the editor-in-chief of the English version of Apple Daily. Cheung said that Lai requested that selected articles in the Chinese version of Apple Daily had to be supportive of protests, anti-establishment, in favor of sanctions, anti-government, and anti-CPC, and then be translated into English.
In July 2020, Apple Daily started the Live Chat with Jimmy Lai program, as Lai appeared to believe that some foreign scholars, politicians and former officials still had influence over Hong Kong. Lai and his assistant Mark Simon were responsible for inviting guests. During the program, Lai claimed that Hong Kong’s democratic movement had been suppressed since the enactment of the National Security Law for Hong Kong and said he hoped that influential figures in the West would support Hong Kong’s democratic movement.
The prosecution also claimed that Lai had donated over HK$93 million over the years to Hong Kong’s opposition parties or individuals through his assistant Simon. Again one has to ask if Western media owners, such as those of The Washington Post or The New York Times, do the same in the US?
Western politicians and media depict Lai’s case as a “trial of a defender of speech in Hong Kong”. Is this the truth? According to Cheung’s testimony in court, readers may ask: Was Lai running a media group that objectively reported on the situation in Hong Kong? Or was he using media as a platform to serve his personal political advocacy? Was Apple Daily, under Lai’s control, objectively reporting or subjectively fueling the entire anti-government political movement? If the answer is the latter, then the comment made by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Lai’s case is completely unfounded.
The author is a former information coordinator of the HKSAR government and a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
