Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai said he was jailed because he ‘embarrassed’ Beijing, court hears

Former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying returns to West Kowloon Court in Hong Kong on Friday to testify in his high-profile trial, with questions centring around his responses to the Beijing-decreed national security law after its enactment on June 30, 2020.

Lai previously spent 11 days in the witness box, as he denied trying to manipulate foreign policies on mainland China and Hong Kong and distanced himself from global lobbying efforts in support of sanctions.

But the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper admitted he had advocated hostile responses from foreign governments in the hope of preventing the passage of the national security law.

He also revealed he had maintained regular contact with activists he believed to be influential figures in the 2019 anti-government protests with the ultimate aim of pacifying the violence that wreaked havoc in the city.

Lai, 77, said on Thursday he was “too optimistic” to have still harboured hope for the city after the security law came into force.

He said he did not believe Beijing and Hong Kong authorities would spare him from prosecution despite promises that nobody would be held liable for offensive conduct committed before the new law’s commencement.