Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai ‘withheld’ sensitive information in bid to meet US vice-president

Admission contradicts previous denial that he had deliberately concealed his intended meeting with then US No 2 official Mike Pence

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Jimmy Lai has admitted trying to win a court’s permission to travel to the US five years ago by withholding “politically sensitive” information about his plan to meet the country’s vice-president. Photo: AP

Published: 6:48pm, 5 Mar 2025Updated: 9:40pm, 5 Mar 2025

Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has admitted trying to win a court’s permission for him to travel to the United States five years ago by withholding “politically sensitive” information about his plan to meet the nation’s vice-president.

Lai, 77, made the remarks on Wednesday when his legal team re-examined their client’s evidence given during his national security trial, asking him to clarify statements he made during the previous 50 days in the witness box which could be deemed incriminating by the court.

The admission appeared to contradict his earlier denial that he had deliberately concealed his intended meeting with then US No 2 official Mike Pence when he applied to the High Court to relax his bail conditions during an unrelated criminal case in June 2020, three weeks before the enactment of the national security law in the same month.

The defendant said in re-examination that he believed his intended visit to the White House would have complicated matters.

“I think the major reason for me to travel is to see my granddaughter, and to be honest, at that time it was not illegal to see the US official, but I was afraid that that would be too politically sensitive,” the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper told West Kowloon Court.

Mr Justice Alex Lee Wan-tang, the judge who dismissed Lai’s request at the time, questioned whether he believed he could stand a better chance by not revealing his full itinerary to the court. Lai answered in the affirmative.

Lai is standing trial on two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.