The names of two U.S. citizens came up in the trial of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong this week as the prosecution brought forward its first witness in the landmark national security case.
Lai has been charged with “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under the Hong Kong National Security Law, among other crimes.
Lai has pleaded not guilty. Following this week’s testimony from a former colleague at the newspaper, the two Americans named, Mark Simon and Mark Clifford, said the allegations that came up in testimony were just normal journalistic work.
In court on Wednesday, Cheung Kim-hung, the former publisher of Apple Daily, appeared as an “accomplice witness.” In his testimony, Cheung said that Lai sought out writers for the popular, now-defunct tabloid through introductions from Simon, his personal assistant, and Clifford, a former director of the newspaper’s parent company, Next Digital.
Simon told VOA Cantonese that he has written English columns for publications owned by Next Digital for more than 10 years and has also invited others to write opinion pieces for Apple Daily, including two Nobel Prize winners in economics, Vernon L. Smith and “father of the euro” Robert Mundell.
“It wasn’t uncommon. it’s basically journalism. I mean, that’s what it is, it’s basically journalism management,” he told VOA Cantonese. “I don't really know where they [the prosecution] are going with this. It seems to me like, the issue is a newspaper being a newspaper.”
Simon said he first met Cheung in 2001 and considered him a friend.
“The human tragedy here of a man being turned against his friend and his boss, it’s horrific to see,” Simon said. “I mean this is very painful for a lot of people to watch. And so, it's a tragedy to watch. With the system, you know, he cut a deal, and I guess he’s saying what he’s going to say.”
When the prosecution made its opening statement for the trial, it said Lai had a broad international network and named many foreign political and business figures who had contact or links with him. Simon was one of those named as a “co-conspirator.”
The prosecution also mentioned Clifford, saying that he attended Lai's online talk show in October 2020 that discussed Washington’s sale of weapons to Taiwan.
Clifford, who is currently the president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, issued a statement acknowledging that he helped find writers for Apple Daily.
“Yes, I, too, plead guilty of practicing journalism. However, it was Kim-hung and his colleagues, working with Jimmy, who deserve the accolades for everything they did to advance the cause of freedom and democracy in Hong Kong in the 26 years they ran the city’s most important newspaper,” wrote Clifford.
Clifford said that there was nothing in Cheung’s testimony that suggested Lai broke the law. He added that Lai was only advocating for freedom and democracy, which was promised by China under the Basic Law, the de facto constitution that governs the territory.
Clifford said he did not feel anger but “immense sorrow” at Cheung's testimony. He said Lai and other defendants should be released immediately.
“Kim-hung and five colleagues have been held as hostages almost three years, since authorities forced Apple Daily to shut in mid-2021. They have pled guilty but remain behind bars, denied bail, so that they can be used as bit players in the ongoing show trial against Jimmy Lai,” he wrote. “None of us know how we would react if put under the sort of strain that Kim-hung and others have endured.
“We all like to think we would be as brave and honorable in sticking to our principles as Jimmy Lai has been. Thankfully, most of us will never be tested like this.”
Britain and the United States have called for Lai’s release and said the case is politically motivated. Hong Kong officials say Lai will receive a fair trial.
Following massive public protests in 2019, authorities in China set up a National Security Law for Hong Kong in a bid to restore stability. The law punishes acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life imprisonment, a penalty Lai could face if found guilty.
Lai’s trial began on December 18 and is being overseen by three judges: Esther Toh, Susana Maria D’Almada Remedios and Alex Lee. There is no jury.
Cheung has also been charged with “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.” He pled guilty with five other defendants in November 2022. Mitigation and sentencing for the six will be conducted after Lai's trial.
When the six pled guilty, the International Federation of Journalists issued a statement condemning the “arbitrary legal persecution” of Apple Daily staff and urged Hong Kong authorities to drop all charges against the media workers immediately.
Aleksandra Bielakowska, Asia-Pacific Bureau Advocacy Officer for Reporters Without Borders, told VOA Cantonese that the latest developments in the case against Lai are deeply worrying and further demonstrate the spurious nature of charges against the Apple Daily founder.
“Targeting human rights defenders in other parts of the world as ‘co-conspirators’ for simply doing their jobs, and now having on stand witnesses who have been held hostage in jail for more than three years, is showing the true extent of the arbitrariness of proceedings Lai is facing,” she said.
“Cheung Kim-hung has been held in custody together with his Apple Daily colleagues simply as the hostages that are being used against Jimmy Lai. Cheung and other detained media staff have been put through an ordeal which is hard to imagine and that none should ever endure.”
Bielakowska said that recent developments in the trial show how China will do anything in its power to crush press freedom in Hong Kong.
“It is not Jimmy Lai as an individual on the trial, it is his media, journalists and press freedom, a principle that shouldn't be crushed but protected as enshrined in the Basic Law,” she said.
