Yesterday (1/30), the trial of the case involving Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai and three related companies of Apple Daily for conspiracy to collude with foreign forces entered its 19th day, and it was also the 9th day of testimony by the prosecution’s “accomplice witness”, former Next Digital CEO Cheung Kim-hung. The defense argued that Jimmy Lai’s promotion of the “Support Small Shops” plan was not the same as supporting yellow shops; Cheung Kim-hung said that the so-called “Support Small Shops” plan was actually “supporting yellow shops”. Jimmy Lai saw that the demonstrations were becoming more and more violent, and began to have the idea of “no distinction between peace and bravery”, so Apple Daily sympathized with and supported the so-called “protesters”.
Cheung Kim-hung (photo)
Cheung Kim-hung was accompanied by three correctional officers that day, and walked from a special passage of the court to the witness stand to take his seat.
Cheung: “Supporting small shops” is actually “supporting yellow shops”
The defense continued to cross-examine Cheung Kim-hung yesterday. Cheung Kim-hung mentioned that Jimmy Lai proposed the “Support Small Shops” classified advertising plan at the “Lunchbox Meeting”. The defense argued that at that time, because Apple Daily was losing advertising clients, it implemented the “Support Small Shops” plan to try to find new sources of income.
Cheung Kim-hung said that “these small classified advertisements are very difficult to make money”, and also said that Apple Daily “did it for more than half a year and didn’t charge any money”, which was “far worse” than large merchants.
Cheung Kim-hung said that the “Support Small Shops” plan ultimately did not charge any fees. When the judge asked whether Apple Daily intended to make money from the “Support Small Shops” plan, Cheung Kim-hung replied: “This is something Mr. Lai himself knows”, “However, Mr. Lai did not instruct when to start charging.” Cheung Kim-hung felt that “(the ‘Support Small Shops’ plan) couldn’t make money, in fact, it lost money every month”.
The defense mentioned that the “Support Small Shops” plan was not “supporting yellow shops”, but it just happened that yellow shops were generally small shops. Cheung Kim-hung said: “Although the name is not ‘supporting yellow shops’, but the actual meaning is like that!” He also said: “Mr. Lai said that as long as there are protests, the yellow economic circle must exist. If there is a society without protests, it is a free economy, then there will be no such problem.” Cheung Kim-hung recalled that Jimmy Lai expected the yellow economic circle to “develop more and more”, and agreed that one of Jimmy Lai’s core beliefs was “free market economy”. When the defense argued that the yellow economic circle contradicted Jimmy Lai’s belief in “free market economy”, Cheung Kim-hung replied: “So, I said that if there are no protests, there is no need for the yellow economic circle”.
Sing Tao Graphics
Cheung said that Apple Daily’s comments must conform to Lai’s framework:
“No positive content about China is allowed”
Regarding whether Apple Daily’s comment articles were open to public submissions, the judge asked Cheung Kim-hung whether anyone who submitted to Apple Daily would be published? Cheung Kim-hung reiterated that articles should be selected according to the framework set by Jimmy Lai, such as “pro-yellow”, “supporting Hong Kong”, conforming to Apple Daily’s views, and “no positive content about China is allowed”.
The defense argued that in the English version of Apple Daily’s website, it was mentioned that the opinions of the article authors did not represent the editorial position. Cheung Kim-hung said, “This is a standard writing style”, “Many programs say that the guests’ opinions do not represent the station’s position”, and confirmed that the statement was only to protect the company.
Cheung disagreed that Lai was only calling for peaceful demonstrations
In court, Cheung Kim-hung disagreed with the defense’s claim that Jimmy Lai was only calling for peaceful demonstrations. The defense presented three news articles from Apple Daily, including “The Evil Law is Tentatively Postponed but Not Withdrawn, Demonstrations Before the Protest, Carrie Lam Slows Down, Tomorrow Still on the Streets” on June 15, 2019, “The Evil Law is Not Withdrawn, Carrie Lam Has Not Stepped Down, Today on the Streets Again” on July 1, 2019, and “Civil Human Rights Front Calls for 8.18 on the Streets, Conscience on Display” on August 14, 2019. The defense pointed out that the demonstrations and marches mentioned in the articles were all issued with a notice of no objection by the police.
The defense argued that Apple Daily’s position was equivalent to Jimmy Lai’s position, and argued that Jimmy Lai had always called for peaceful and legal demonstrations.
Cheung Kim-hung said: “Later, the violence became more and more fierce, Mr. Lai felt that peace and bravery should not be separated, and then Apple Daily published the violent things, reporting and commenting from the perspective of sympathizing with and supporting the protesters”.
The defense asked whether Cheung Kim-hung thought that some Apple Daily articles or views were inappropriate, such as the part about the violence of the demonstrators. Cheung Kim-hung said “personally felt there were problems”, but “as the president of Apple Daily, I must implement Jimmy Lai’s editorial policy”.
US Vice President Pence meets with Anson Chan
Lai instructed to achieve the “maximum effect”
The defense cross-examined Cheung Kim-hung on matters he had mentioned during the prosecution’s main examination. The defense pointed out that Apple Daily’s front-page news on March 24, 2019 was “Pence Meets with Mrs. Anson Chan, Concerned about Hong Kong People’s Rights, Scholars: High-standard Reception to Pressure Beijing”, and Cheung Kim-hung said during the main examination that Jimmy Lai had forwarded to him a photo of former Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan and then US Vice President Mike Pence meeting, and instructed Cheung Kim-hung to make this major news achieve the “maximum effect”.
Cheung Kim-hung agreed that this was an event that was particularly worth reporting. The defense then presented reports on the meeting between Anson Chan and Pence by Sing Tao Daily, South China Morning Post, and Ta Kung Pao. South China Morning Post and Ta Kung Pao used the same photo as Apple Daily. The headline of Ta Kung Pao’s report on the event was “Anson Chan ‘Complains to Foreigners’ and Flatters Pence”, which was completely different from Apple Daily’s report. Cheung Kim-hung said that it was “no problem” that different newspapers reported from different angles.
The defense mentioned that according to Cheung Kim-hung’s testimony, Jimmy Lai had asked Cheung Kim-hung to write words related to the anti-amendment movement with a brush on a long banner in June 2019, and to print 100,000 copies and attach them to Apple Daily for distribution. The defense argued that Cheung Kim-hung’s statement was not true, and that the 100,000 long banners were distributed by the pan-democrats. Cheung Kim-hung said that it was Jimmy Lai who asked for “boycott of the market, boycott of classes, boycott of work” to be written on the back of the long banner before it was distributed by the pan-democrats.
Lai asked to follow up on the meeting with Pompeo and “make it bigger”
Cheung Kim-hung said during the prosecution’s main examination that Jimmy Lai had been on Albert Ho’s program “Talking about the South China Sea in Detail”. Afterwards, Jimmy Lai called Cheung Kim-hung and mentioned that Jimmy Lai had mentioned in “Talking about the South China Sea in Detail” that he had previously met with then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to ask the US to support the “anti-amendment movement” in Hong Kong. Jimmy Lai asked to follow up on this matter and “make it bigger”.
Hong Kong People’s Land Picture
The defense pointed out that Cheung Kim-hung had only mentioned the above incident in court for the first time during the prosecution’s main examination, and had never mentioned it before, and the witness statement had not mentioned it either. Cheung Kim-hung completely disagreed, emphasizing “but Mr. Lai did call me”.
The defense also pointed out that Jimmy Lai did not call Cheung Kim-hung at the time, and did not mention to Cheung Kim-hung that he had mentioned in “Talking about the South China Sea in Detail” that he had previously met with then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to ask the US to support the anti-amendment movement in Hong Kong. Cheung Kim-hung replied: “Yes. He did call me and told me that he had mentioned his meeting with Pompeo in Albert Ho’s program”.
Cheung said that Lai allowed the English version to add financial news
“But it must be about negative news about China”
The defense mentioned that Cheung Kim-hung had previously testified that Jimmy Lai had established the English version of Apple Daily in order for Apple Daily to gain international support, and to provide English readers with Chinese news that they could not see in South China Morning Post, and that the viewpoints and angles were different from South China Morning Post, breaking the monopoly of South China Morning Post in English news. The defense argued that the English version of Apple Daily focused on reporting Chinese news and at the same time reported unfairly, in order to provide readers with Chinese news that they could not see in South China Morning Post, and Cheung Kim-hung disagreed.
Cheung Kim-hung added that the purpose of Jimmy Lai’s establishment of the English version of Apple Daily was to hope that Apple Daily would be politically protected, and that through English news, it could make foreign countries, the United States, and other Western democratic countries pay attention to the situation in Hong Kong, “to do public opinion well abroad, so that foreign countries can implement some actions against China’s suppression of human rights, so that Hong Kong can be protected”.
The defense also pointed out that Jimmy Lai had said that the English version of Apple Daily must increase news, even financial news. Cheung Kim-hung agreed. The defense pointed out that financial news should not involve politics. Cheung Kim-hung agreed, but pointed out that “it must be about negative news about China”. Although Jimmy Lai asked to increase news, he also did not allow the addition of general news. Fung Wai-kwong had suggested increasing international news, and Jimmy Lai also did not allow it, and had “informed Fung Wai-kwong on WhatsApp that these news items do not need to be selected, and will dilute the original meaning of the English version”.
Lai praised Trump for daring to launch a trade war against China
The defense pointed out that the “One Person, One Letter to Save Hong Kong” campaign mentioned international pressure, and said that through international pressure, China would reconsider “this disastrous course of action”, and the campaign was actually intended to ask China to reconsider the National Security Law for Hong Kong. The judge interrupted the defense at this point, believing that the question was inappropriate, because the target of the campaign was then US President Donald Trump. The defense explained that this was an indirect way. The judge then suggested that the defense should divide the question into two parts. The defense then changed its statement.
The defense asked whether Apple Daily regarded the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong as a disastrous action. Cheung Kim-hung said “Mr. Lai thinks so”.
The defense continued to point out that international pressure could be exerted in many ways. Cheung Kim-hung agreed, but said that “Mr. Lai’s thinking at the time was not an ordinary international pressure”.
The defense presented an article “The Best Time for a Scorched Earth Policy” by author Li Yi in Apple Daily’s “Worldly Affairs and Life” column. The defense pointed out that although the article began by mentioning “the appeal to the international community is to impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong”, but in the whole text, it was actually just describing the background of the demonstration events, and did not advocate or encourage a scorched earth policy or sanctions. But Cheung Kim-hung disagreed, and said that Li Yi was “affirming this matter, not describing it”.
The defense asked whether Apple Daily used the “One Person, One Letter to Save Hong Kong” campaign to point out the “shortcomings” of the enactment of the National Security Law for Hong Kong. Cheung Kim-hung said: “I don’t see any relationship, I can’t agree.” Cheung said that Jimmy Lai “has always said that he wants to fight against China, praised Trump’s unilateralism, dared to launch a trade war with China, and forced China to conform to Western values, these have always been Mr. Lai’s views”, emphasizing that Jimmy Lai asked Trump to fight against China.
Jimmy Lai’s Prison Van
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