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Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai admits to exploiting anti-China sentiment during Covid-19
But former media boss rejects accusations the effort was meant to boost Donald Trump’s re-election bid in 2020
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Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has admitted to capitalising on anti-China sentiments in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic to instigate sanctions against Beijing, but denies doing so to help Donald Trump get reelected.
Lai told West Kowloon Court on Thursday that he thought he could convince Trump to actively prevent the passage of the national security law five years ago, by encouraging the then president to retaliate against mainland China over claims it had enabled the spread of the coronavirus worldwide.
The founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid newspaper acknowledged he had tried to put the two seemingly irrelevant issues “in a package” to incentivise Trump to intervene.
He rejected the prosecutors’ claim that he intended to boost Trump’s chances in the 2020 US presidential election at the expense of Beijing and Hong Kong’s interests.
Prosecutors pressed on with their cross-examination of Lai’s evidence in his marathon trial, alleging that he had intended to continue attracting foreign sanctions after the act was outlawed by the national security law in June 2020.
The 77-year-old defendant has denied two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.
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