Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai paid ex-US general to advise Taiwanese government: court

Hong Kong prosecutors have begun cross-examining Jimmy Lai Chee-ying as part of his marathon national security trial, after the defence wraps up its first round of questioning of the former media boss on Thursday.

The 77-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid newspaper has provided verbal testimony at West Kowloon Court for 26 days since first taking the witness box last November.

The three presiding High Court judges previously ruled he had a case to answer on two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.

Prosecutors have accused Lai of using his tabloid to instigate Western sanctions and incite public hatred towards mainland Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.

He also allegedly backed the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” international lobbying group to attract anti-China responses from foreign governments with a view to trigger the mainland’s economic collapse.

In his testimony, Lai at first denied trying to manipulate foreign policies on the mainland and in Hong Kong.

But he later acknowledged he had called for sanctions on Beijing and local officials to prevent the passage of Hong Kong’s 2020 national security law and to stave off what he saw as an encroachment on the city’s fundamental freedoms.