Former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has said he thought the Beijing-imposed national security law would be “more bark than bite” before its enactment and so continued his campaign for Hongkongers to petition then-US president Donald Trump for help.
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Deputy Director of Prosecutions Anthony Chau Tin-hang on Thursday questioned Lai on the topics he discussed with paralegal Wayland Chan Tsz-wah, now a prosecution witness, during their sixth meeting in June 2020, just before the national security law came into force.
The outspoken Beijing critic is accused of orchestrating a lobbying campaign by using Chan to relay his instructions to a pressure group in the hopes of mobilising Western governments to take hostile actions against Hong Kong and mainland China.
Lai said he felt the law was “more bark than bite” out of “wishful thinking” that Beijing would not “destroy” the city, and continued to launch the “One Hongkonger One Letter to Save Hong Kong” initiative under Apple Daily.
The drive aimed to convince readers to petition Trump to take action to block the national security law.
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“At that time my mind was still a bit relaxed as I thought [it was] ‘more bark and bite” … [I was] cautious, but not intensively cautious,” Lai told the court.