Chinese embassy condemns UK’s ‘flagrant interference’ in Hong Kong affairs after jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s son meets British foreign secretary
- British Foreign Secretary David Cameron says he met Jimmy Lai’s son to ‘listen to his concerns for his father’
- Embassy says it firmly opposes British politicians’ emboldening of Lai, describing him as ‘one of the most notorious anti-China elements’
The embassy on Tuesday slammed British Foreign Secretary David Cameron for meeting Lai’s son Sebastien Lai Sung-yan earlier in the day in London. Cameron said he wanted to “listen to his concerns for his father”.
“The UK opposes the national security law and will continue to stand by Jimmy Lai and the people of [Hong Kong],” the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to target acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign organisations.
Jimmy Lai, a British national, is the founder of the now-defunct, opposition-friendly Apple Daily newspaper. He is set to go on trial next Monday for charges related to the security law and the colonial-era sedition law.
The media mogul had been charged with two counts of conspiracy to collude with external forces, one count of collusion with external forces and one count of publishing seditious publications.
The Chinese embassy said Beijing firmly opposed what it called British politicians’ emboldening of Lai, describing him as “one of the most notorious anti-China elements bent on destabilising Hong Kong”.
