Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai ignored objections to his letter campaign to Donald Trump, said being ‘brave’ only way to stop security law, court hears

Chan, a defendant turned prosecution witness, said the initiative would have been fine had Lai run the advertisements in his personal capacity instead of launching it under Apple Daily’s name.

She added her supervisor, former publisher Cheung Kim-hung, was “not very eager” to follow his boss’ instructions either.

But Lai stood his ground, saying in a text message that they could not “pretend to be careful and clever” at a time of crisis.

Jimmy Lai trial told Hong Kong tycoon used political figures to back Apple Daily

“The only way is to be brave! There’s no other way to deal with [the Chinese Communist Party] now,” the tycoon added.

Lai, 76, is being tried on two conspiracy counts of collusion with foreign forces under the national security law, as well as a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications under colonial-era legislation.

Prosecutors are seeking to establish a case that Apple Daily excited public disaffection with the new law and used it as an excuse to instigate hostile actions from overseas countries against Beijing and local authorities.

“Damn it, it’s coming!” Lai said in one such dialogue.

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The court heard the tycoon later asked Chan to regularly feed him ideas to write on his personal social media account.

Chan on one occasion suggested that Lai write about the “Hong Kong traitors” who supported the national security law.

Lai subsequently tweeted a picture of Tang and other CPPCC members behind a banner that said “support national security legislation, safeguard ‘one country, two systems’ [governing principle]” and questioned whether “the US government [should] put them on the sanction list”.

Separately, prosecutors asked Chan to explain Apple Daily’s decision to run a series of allegedly seditious publications at a time when “riots and protests” were still gripping the city.

An introductory statement of the webpage said the Chinese Communist Party, “descending like a devil”, had turned China’s far west region into a “city-sized jail”.

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The witness denied playing up the story with an ulterior motive, noting the alliance was newly established at the time and that other news outlets also had produced reports about the activist.

Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai told Apple Daily not to target Donald Trump, court hears

Chan explained the case had generated controversies in the social work sector, with some feeling the ruling was too harsh.

In a message originally addressed to Lai, Mark Simon, his right-hand man and a former US intelligence agent, said “our friend in Pompeo’s team” was concerned “the message is not reaching the Hong Kong community because of the dominance of pro-Beijing news organisations”.

The tabloid later ran a story titled “Pompeo stands with dissidents” as part of its report on the anniversary.

Chan, however, explained that Simon’s prompt message and the subsequent report were unrelated, as Lai was merely asking at the time whether the tabloid had run a story on Pompeo.

The trial continues on Thursday.