Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai admits to lobbying for international support

Ex-media boss says at national security trial that belief sanctions could topple Communist Party is ‘more than ridiculous’

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Police set up traffic instructions outside West Kowloon Court. Photo: Sun Yeung

Published: 8:24pm, 28 Nov 2024Updated: 10:30pm, 28 Nov 2024

Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has admitted to lobbying for international support in the hopes of putting pressure on Beijing, while saying it is “more than ridiculous” to believe the punitive action would be enough to overthrow the Communist Party of China.

Lai said on Thursday at his high-profile national security trial that he had advocated peaceful and rational protests to win the international community’s sympathy and prevent what he saw as Beijing’s encroachment upon Hongkongers’ fundamental freedoms.

But the Apple Daily founder denied proposing a strategy to instigate China’s political and economic collapse, suggesting the idea originated from a UK-based activist wanted by the city’s national security police.

Lai, 77, was testifying for a sixth day at West Kowloon Court, where he was grilled by the three presiding High Court judges over his ultimate aim of drumming up foreign governments’ support during the 2019 anti-government protests.

The ex-media boss, who has denied sedition and foreign collusion charges, acknowledged that a high-level meeting he had with then-United States vice-president Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state at the time, at the White House in July 2019 was “kind of” an attempt to have sanctions imposed.

When asked by a judge to clarify his intended target, Lai said he was eyeing the Beijing officials involved in “suppressing Hong Kong people” instead of “China as a state”.