Written by 
Jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai has said tensions between China and the West grew after Xi Jinping became leader and could only be resolved if he were to step down, while denying that such a claim amounted to inciting hatred against Xi.
Lai, 77, told his national security trial on Thursday that he thought Xi did not understand international affairs and that the Chinese president’s “ascendance” had changed “everything” in the Communist Party.
The Apple Daily founder continued to explain comments made in a livestreamed interview series titled “Live Chat with Jimmy Lai” from 2020 as his testimony stretched into its 21st day.
The court heard that, in an episode from September 17 that year, Lai warned that China was a threat to the world and said the country’s “war wolf attitude” would not change unless Xi stepped down.
“I was just stating the fact that Xi Jinping doesn’t understand world affairs, he thinks that to deal with the world is the same as to deal with the people in China,” he told the court.
Lai said he was not suggesting that China wanted to make the world “subservient” but maintained that the country was forcing its way in international affairs.
He called the Chinese Communist Party “a dictatorship” which depended only on “one person’s ideas,” but also said the party was different before Xi became its leader in 2012.
“[The CCP has] been flourishing and doing well, that’s why China had become a miracle economically,” Lai said. “Only after Xi Jinping ascended, everything changed.”
In the interview, the media mogul also likened the Covid-19 pandemic to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour in the Second World War, echoing the views of US journalist Claudia Rosett, who appeared as a guest on the programme.
Lai said in court that the world had an “awakening” to the danger posed by China after the pandemic, the first cases of which were discovered in the country before spreading across the globe.
The court also heard that, in a commentary published on September 27, 2020, Lai again raised the idea of resolving China’s tension with the world by replacing Xi.
Ask if he intended to incite hatred against Beijing through his writing, Lai said: “No, not even to Xi. I was stating that, you know, since his ascendance China began to have problems with the West and the US… I think that impasse can only be solved by the party itself without [Xi] dictating the party.”
Lai has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed security law and a third count of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials. He faces life behind bars if convicted.
Freedom of speech
The tycoon on Thursday also denied advocating the US to recognise Taiwan – a self-ruled democracy which China claims as part of its territory – as an independent country in the September 27 opinion piece.
In court, Lai said he was merely repeating analysis known to the public that anti-China sentiment in the US could lead the country to formally recognise Taiwan and even redeploy some of its troops stationed in Japan to the island.
Lai also denied advocating for an international export embargo on providing high technologies to China as that measure had already been imposed by the US. The US imposed sanctions on Huawei in August 2020, restricting foreign semiconductor manufacturers from selling chips to the Chinese tech giant, after it was designated a national security threat.
“Western countries will have to follow [US embargos] because they use a lot of US technologies in their products,” Lai said.
Presiding judge Alex Lee questioned the tycoon’s word choices in the opinion piece, including his use of “Wuhan pneumonia” to refer to the coronavirus, a term that over time took on racist and xenophobic connotations.
Lai said he was aware that of an Apple Daily editorial decision to stop using the term in reports and said he was “careless” to have used the phrase.
Judge Esther Toh also took issue with something Lai wrote that suggested a police raid of Apple Daily’s newsroom in August 2020 had effectively “deterred” other news outlets in Hong Kong from publishing criticism of authorities.
“It’s not all the media were shocked to suffocation, because you wrote the article,” Toh said. “Your argument was not entirely accurate, isn’t it?”
Lai maintained that the raid had caused widespread worry about arrests and closures in the journalism sector, which had damaged freedom of speech.
“Freedom of speech is that you don’t have to be feared for being apprehended and closed down even if you make a mistake,” he said.
The trial will resume on January 6.
Lai has been detained since December 2020. Three judges – handpicked by Hong Kong’s chief executive to hear national security cases – are presiding over his trial in the place of a jury, marking a departure from the city’s common law traditions.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact Us | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps
Help safeguard press freedom & keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team
