“Everyone felt that Mr Lai was so powerful that he could meet White House officials and explain to them Hong Kong’s situation. Going to the White House was indeed possible.”

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai told staff to run ‘pro-resistance’ stories: trial

The media tycoon received a “warm welcome” from then vice-president Mike Pence, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, who were joined by three Republican senators, according to a Bloomberg report submitted to the court.

“After that, Apple Daily’s editorial policy became … rather radical, you can say,” Cheung said. “Because of this, Apple Daily would report on and sympathise with this entire movement, however violent and radical the scene was, as if it was the [local] government and the Chinese Communist Party who caused [the unrest].”

Lai has denied two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, which was enacted in 2020, and a third charge of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications under colonial-era legislation.

Cheung said that after the high-level meeting, the media tycoon spoke about foreign sanctions more frequently whenever he issued editorial instructions to his staff.

Lai had also instructed Cheung to cast the spotlight on “the opposition camp and resistance fighters” in a series of video interviews published on the newspaper’s digital platforms, the witness added.

During proceedings, defence counsel Steven Kwan Man-wai said Lai had difficulty keeping up with the various documentary evidence displayed in court via a digital screen because he had an eye problem.

“His condition has deteriorated recently after an operation,” the lawyer said, adding that further surgery could be necessary.

Prosecutors have alleged Lai was the mastermind of an anti-China conspiracy linked to Apple Daily, where he had complete control over its editorial policies.

On Friday, they sought to establish a case of Lai trying to instigate anti-government protests by using Apple Daily to play up the case of a bookseller who went missing and later appeared in mainland Chinese custody.

Lam was one of five Hong Kong booksellers detained in 2015 for selling publications about the country’s leaders that were banned on the mainland. He later said he had been abducted by Chinese agents. He moved to Taiwan soon after the bill was proposed.

“We will use Lam Wing-kee’s story to boost the mass rally on the 28th,” Lai said in a WhatsApp message to Cheung shown in court. “However, in order to make it a headline story, [we] must approach Lam for a telephone interview. Please contact Lam and make this happen. Thanks.”

Lai had also approached former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, via British human rights activist Benedict Rogers, for comment on what Apple Daily called a “vicious” bill and to urge residents to take to the streets, Cheung said.

Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai ‘told Apple Daily to promote resistance’ against government

The court on Friday heard that the newspaper ran a story on April 27, 2019, under the headline: “Lam Wing-kee Exiled to Taiwan”.

The article quoted Lam as saying that “[one] must step forward to resist the political regimes of Hong Kong and the mainland” and that Hongkongers should not “pretend to be asleep”.

Apple Daily published a statement from Patten a day after the article ran in which the city’s last governor said the extradition bill was “an assault on Hong Kong’s values, stability and security”.

“These measures are a direct attack on the principle of ‘one country, two systems’ and Hong Kong’s autonomy under the rule of law,” Patten said, referring to the city’s governing principle.

“They further make it difficult to explain to the outside world that Beijing can be trusted to keep its word, and that Hong Kong is different from mainland Chinese cities and must be treated as such.”

Cheung said that the two stories were published in line with Lai’s instructions to “push more people onto the streets”.

Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai ‘told Apple Daily to promote resistance’ against government

Recordings from a messaging exchange between Rogers and Lai also appeared to show the former suggesting lines that Patten should use in his statement.

The court also heard Lai asked Cheung after protests erupted in June 2019 to design a banner with Chinese calligraphy for distribution before a mass demonstration on June 16.

The banner text, shown in court, included calls for a citywide strike, market suspensions and class boycotts.

Lai also backed Cheung’s proposal to donate one-third of Apple Daily’s subscription proceeds to a fund set up to help protesters.

“Mr Lai felt that, by donating HK$1 [12 US cents] of every HK$3 handling fee charged from subscribers to support protesters’ medical expenses and litigation, it could encourage those supporting the resistance movement to subscribe to Apple Daily,” Cheung said.

The trial continues on Tuesday.