Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai promoted unofficial primary election in 2020 and planned to back localist candidates to boost opposition, trial told

Chan added Lai believed mainstream opposition parties could also benefit from the primary as the losing candidates’ votes would eventually go to those who represented the camp in the main event.

But Chan said Lai told him he would back fresh localist candidates instead of established opposition groups.

Chan added that Lai said the involvement of political novices could raise the unofficial poll’s legitimacy.

Lai also revealed to Chan he had obtained a quote from a European firm for the supply of a computer application to run the unofficial vote.

More than 610,000 voters cast their ballots in the opposition-led primary in July 2020, but the government postponed the election for a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lai, 76, faces two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law and a third charge of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.

Prosecutors accused the Apple Daily founder of running an anti-China campaign by sponsoring the “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” (SWHK) campaign group and using Chan to relay instructions to its leaders.

Jimmy Lai knew ‘US conditions for continued support’ of Hong Kong protests

Chan turned prosecution witness after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces in 2021.

He told the court of a meeting with Lai’s right-hand man Mark Simon in Sha Tin’s Hyatt Regency Hotel in early December 2019.

Chan said Simon, who previously worked for US naval intelligence, had told him the opposition’s triumph was inevitable and praised an election observation mission organised by SWHK so overseas parliamentarians could watch the voting process.

“He thought the mission was well executed, just as they wanted,” Chan said, referring to Simon and Lai.

Simon said Lai decided to reward Chan by giving him control over the bank account of one of his shell companies in the British Virgin Islands so the paralegal could start his own business.

Chan approached Simon in December 2019 for help with the arrangements for a series of meetings in Washington so activist Andy Li Yu-hin, a core SWHK member, could lobby US politicians.

Li was said to have told Chan he had prepared a sanctions list to lobby US officials to support punitive measures against Hong Kong after then president Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

‘Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai funded campaign for global support of 2019 protests’

Lai in return asked Chan to link him up with UK-based campaigner Finn Lau Cho-dik as he wanted to invite him to join a proposed alliance of leading activists that would have united all opposition forces in the city, but Lau was hesitant because of what he saw as the mogul’s conservative approach.

The tycoon told Chan in a face-to-face meeting on the last day of 2019 that he did not oppose “valiant” protest strategies but he had to strike a balance to “cater to the West”.

He also instructed Chan to appeal to young campaigners to focus on taking protesters’ demands to the world stage instead of trying to “steal the limelight” by pushing their political ideas without consideration of the views of the older generation of activists.

Lai invited Chan and Lau to meet the late Taiwan democracy activist Shih Ming-teh, whom the tycoon described as “a true revolutionary”, at his villa in Taipei’s Yangmingshan in mid-January 2020.

The paralegal said the three-day trip also included former opposition lawmakers Lee Wing-tat and Albert Ho Chun-yan, as well as their spouses.

Chan said one reason Lai organised the visit was that he hoped to convince Lau in person to join his initiative.

The trial continues on Friday.