Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai called on US to impose ‘very draconian’ sanctions against Beijing, court hears in mogul’s past interviews

Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying urged the US to use its “moral authority” to impose “very draconian” sanctions on mainland China, prosecutors told the court on Tuesday, as they played footage from the publisher’s past media interviews.

Prosecutors at the West Kowloon Court played six interview clips that showed Lai expressing support for foreign interference in local affairs. The footage all dated back to before Beijing imposed the national security law on June 30, 2020.

The founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid newspaper on Tuesday also pleaded not guilty to three counts of conspiracy, one of which involved the city’s colonial-era sedition law and the other two focused on collusion with foreign forces.

The latter offence is prohibited under the national security law, which also bans acts of secession, subversion and terrorism.

Member of Lai’s defence team outside West Kowloon Court on Tuesday. Photo: Elson Li

Lai is accused of attracting international sanctions and inciting public hatred towards central and local authorities in the wake of the 2019 anti-government protests.

Among the footage played at court was the tycoon’s interview from July 2019 with US-based research institute the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

In the clip, Lai described tensions between Beijing and Washington as a modern-day cold war, stressing that Hongkongers shared the same moral principles as Americans and yearned for US support amid a conflict of values with the mainland.

“Hong Kong is fighting a war of the same values as yours,” the tycoon said. “It means we are fighting your war in your enemy’s camp.”

He also cited former US president John F. Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” anti-communist speech from 1963 and said America’s moral force was akin to a nuclear weapon that could “finish [Beijing] in a minute”.

In an interview with Bloomberg in May 2020, the media tycoon also called then US president Donald Trump “our only salvation” and urged the latter to impose “very draconian” sanctions on Beijing.

Lai then argued that the introduction of national security legislation would destroy Hong Kong’s autonomy and the rule of law.

The media tycoon said that overseas support was the “only [thing] we can hold on to” and that foreign intervention was “what we need now” while appearing on a Taiwanese live streaming programme in the same month.

Lai and other Hongkongers would very much welcome support from overseas entities, including the US Central Intelligence Agency, he added.

“We really want the CIA, we really want the US to influence us,” he said. “We really want the UK to influence us.”

Speaking to US-funded Radio Free Asia in June that year, Lai called for foreign intervention and sanctions against China in response to the latter’s “imperious” behaviour.

The tycoon also suggested overseas support could protect the city’s rule of law and freedoms.

“When the US and Europe are not paying lip service, but implementing sanctions, I think it is possible that the national security law will not be executed even if it is imposed in Hong Kong,” he said. “It will also be watered down if it is executed.”

He also said Trump, who was running for another term at the time, could adopt a variety of sanctions to garner support from Americans who accused China of causing the deaths and economic problems that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.