Updated Nov. 20, 2024, 3:20 a.m. ET.
Detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai denied on Wednesday a charge of colluding with foreign forces, telling a court in his first testimony that he and his now-defunct newspaper had simply stood for freedom.
Lai, 76, is facing charges under the 2020 National Security Law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony a year after it was rocked by anti-government protests. He faces life imprisonment.
About 100 Lai supporters lined up outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court early on Wednesday, hoping to get in to show their support.
Wearing a gray suit jacket and light green sweater, Lai greeted relatives and friends, clasping hands and smiling after entering the court.
The founder of the now-closed Apple Daily, a Chinese-language tabloid renowned for its pro-democracy views and criticism of Beijing, pleaded not guilty on Jan. 2 to “sedition” and “collusion” under the security law.
The United States, Britain and other Western countries have denounced Lai’s prosecution and called for his release.
During the peak of the 2019 protests, Lai visited Washington and met then-Vice President Mike Pence and other U.S. politicians to discuss Hong Kong’s political crisis.
Prosecutors allege that Lai’s activities and his newspaper’s articles constituted lobbying for sanctions against Beijing and Hong Kong, a violation of the security law. Lai’s lawyers argue that he ceased such action after the law took effect on June 30, 2020.
In his testimony, Lai denied asking anything specific of Pence, the Reuters news agency reported.
“I would not dare to ask the vice president to do anything. I would just relay to him what happened in Hong Kong when he asked me,” Lai told the court.
Lai said he had asked then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “Not to do something but to say something. To voice out its support for Hong Kong.”
“We were always in support of movements for freedom,” he said.
Human rights groups say Lai’s trial is a “sham” and part of a broad crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong that has all but destroyed its reputation as the only place in Greater China where the rule of law and freedoms of speech and assembly were preserved.
The hearing comes a day after a Hong Kong court jailed 45 democracy supporters for up to 10 years for subversion at the end of the city’s biggest national security trial.
Those sentences drew international condemnation and calls for further sanctions on Hong Kong and the expansion of lifeboat visa schemes for those fleeing the political crackdown in the city.
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Lai is a British citizen who, despite being born in the southern province of Guangdong, has never held Chinese citizenship. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised concerns about Lai’s health when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday at a G20 meeting in Brazil.
Beijing said the 2020 security law was necessary to safeguard the Asian financial hub’s economic success.
But critics say crackdowns on dissent and press freedom that followed its introduction sounded the death knell for the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, that was meant to safeguard freedoms not enjoyed elsewhere in China for 50 years.
Lai has been in prison for nearly four years. He was jailed for nearly six years in 2022 on a fraud conviction linked to his media business.
Lai has long advocated for the U.S. government, especially during the first term of President Donald Trump, to take a strong stance in supporting Hong Kong’s civil liberties, which he viewed as essential to the city’s role as a gateway between China and global markets.
Trump has vowed to secure Lai’s release, media reported.
During Trump’s first term, the U.S. revoked Hong Kong’s special trade status and enacted legislation allowing sanctions on the city’s officials in response to China’s crackdown on the city.
“Mr President, you’re the only one who can save us,” Lai said in an interview with CNN in 2020 weeks before his arrest.
“If you save us, you can stop China’s aggressions. You can also save the world.”
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
Updated to include comment from Lai.