US imposed sanctions based on highly subjective assessments of officials, Jimmy Lai’s Hong Kong trial hears

Prosecution reads out reports by City University Professor Wang Guiguo on impact of US laws designed to penalise alleged perpetrators of human rights violations in Hong Kong

Wang compiled reports at request of national security police investigating Lai and anti-China conspiracy he allegedly orchestrated

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Jimmy Lai has denied two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 9:25pm, 10 May 2024Updated: 10:00pm, 10 May 2024

The United States imposed “severe” sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials based on “highly subjective” assessments of their contributions to what was seen as the erosion of the city’s degree of autonomy, a legal scholar has argued in Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s national security trial.

The prosecution on Friday read out two reports by City University Professor Wang Guiguo on the nature and impact of various US laws designed to penalise the alleged perpetrators of human rights violations in Hong Kong.

Wang referred to the 2019 Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and noted a non-American could be held responsible for undermining the city’s fundamental freedoms through the “extrajudicial rendition, arbitrary detention or torture of any person in Hong Kong” or “other gross violations of internationally recognised human rights”.

“The terms such as ‘responsible’, ‘arbitrary’, ‘gross’ et cetera are subject to highly subjective judgment. As they are to be interpreted in conjunction with other US laws, misinterpretation or even abuse cannot be avoided,” the professor argued.

“This in practice constitutes a coercion that furthers the already severe impacts of the intended sanctions under the [act].”

While no sanctions were passed under this authority, Wang stressed its actual effect should be viewed in conjunction with other punitive measures, including the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and an executive order that then-US president Donald Trump signed in July 2020.