Jimmy Lai says he may have asked US official to sanction Beijing and Hong Kong

Lai also tries to distance himself from ‘Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong’ lobbying group, but admits he had multiple meetings with key members

Reading Time:3 minutes

Police have been on alert outside West Kowloon Court. Photo: Sun Yeung

Published: 10:13pm, 27 Nov 2024Updated: 12:53am, 29 Nov 2024

Former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has said he might have asked a senior US official to impose sanctions on Beijing and Hong Kong following the city authorities’ crackdown on the 2019 anti-government protests.

Lai on Wednesday also tried to distance himself from the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK) international lobbying group, but admitted he had multiple meetings with one of its key members in the hopes he could convince protesters to stage demonstrations without resorting to violence.

Lai, in the fifth day of the Apple Daily founder’s oral testimony in his high-profile national security trial, was asked to explain his high-level meeting with then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in Washington in July 2019.

The former media boss told an online talk show hosted by former lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan that he had asked the American government to sanction Beijing and Hong Kong leaders by freezing their overseas financial assets and preventing their children from studying in their country, according to an Apple Daily report.

Lai was also said to have expressed a desire for Beijing and Hong Kong officials to realise they would bear consequences for their “wrong acts” so that they would not be so “arrogant”.

West Kowloon Court heard the Apple Daily report was published shortly after the online talk programme was aired, but the video could no longer be found.