China's problems come from Xi Jinping, Jimmy Lai says at trial

Jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai said tensions between China and the West rose after Xi Jinping became leader and could only be resolved if he resigned, while denying that such a claim amounted to an incitement to hatred against Xi.

Lai, 77, told his national security trial Thursday that he believed Xi didn't understand international affairs and that the Chinese president's ascendancy had changed everything within the Communist Party.

The Apple Daily founder continued to explain comments made in a live-streamed interview series titled Live Chat with Jimmy Lai from 2020 as his testimony stretched into his 21st day.

The court heard that in an episode on September 17 that year, Lai warned that China was a threat to the world and said the country's war wolf attitude would not change unless Xi resigns.

I was just saying that Xi Jinping doesn't understand world affairs, he thinks that dealing with the world is the same as dealing with the Chinese people, he told the court.

Lai said he was not suggesting China wanted to enslave the world, but maintained the country asserted itself in international affairs.

He called the Chinese Communist Party a dictatorship that depended only on the ideas of one person, but also said the party was different before Xi became its leader in 2012.

[The CCP has] is prosperous and doing well, which is why China has become an economic miracle, Lai said. It was only after the ascension of Xi Jinping that everything changed.

In the interview, the media mogul also compared the Covid-19 pandemic to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, echoing the words of American journalist Claudia Rosett, a guest on the show.

Lai told the court that the world had woken up to the danger posed by China after the pandemic, the first cases of which were discovered in the country before spreading across the world.

The court also heard that, in a comment posted on September 27, 2020, Lai again raised the idea of ​​resolving tensions between China and the world by replacing Xi.

Asked if he intended to incite hatred against Beijing through his writings, Lai replied: No, not even to Xi. I was saying that, you know, since its rise, China has started to have problems with the West and the United States, I think this impasse can only be resolved by the party itself, without [Xi] dictate the party.

Lai pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed security law and a third count of conspiring to publish documents seditious. He faces life behind bars if convicted.

Freedom of expression

The tycoon also denied Thursday that he advocated for the United States to recognize Taiwan — a self-governing democracy that China claims as part of its territory — as an independent country in his September 27 opinion piece.

In court, Lai said he was merely repeating a publicly known analysis that anti-China sentiment in the United States could lead the country to formally recognize Taiwan and even redeploy some of its troops stationed in Japan to the island.

Lai also denied arguing for an international export embargo on the supply of high technology to China, as the measure had already been imposed by the United States. The United States imposed sanctions on Huawei in August 2020, banning foreign semiconductor makers from selling chips to the Chinese tech giant, after it was designated a national security threat.

Western countries will have to follow [US embargos] because they use a lot of American technology in their products, Lai said.

Presiding Judge Alex Lee questioned the tycoons' word choices in the opinion piece, including his use of “Wuhan pneumonia” to refer to the coronavirus, a term that over time has taken on racist and xenophobic connotations.

Lai said he was aware of Apple Daily's editorial decision to stop using the term in reporting and said it had been reckless to have used the phrase.

Judge Esther Toh also took issue with something Lai wrote that said a police raid on Apple Daily's newsroom in August 2020 had effectively deterred other Hong Kong media outlets from publishing criticism of authorities.

Not all media outlets were shocked to the point of choking because you wrote this article, Toh said. Your argument wasn't quite right, was it?

Lai said the raid had sparked widespread concern over arrests and closures in the journalism sector, which had undermined freedom of expression.

Free speech means there is no need to fear being apprehended and arrested, even if you make a mistake, he said.

The trial will resume on January 6.

Lai has been detained since December 2020. Three judges handpicked by Hong Kong's chief executive to hear national security cases are presiding over his trial in place of a jury, marking a break with common law traditions of the city.

Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong's mini-constitution in June 2020, after a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalizes subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – defined broadly to include disruption of transportation and other infrastructure. The move gave new powers to police and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. Authorities say this has restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from business partners, the UN and NGOs.

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