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Hong Kong Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Says He Was Arrested on ‘Trumped Up’ Charges
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August 17, 2020
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3:58Now PlayingHong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai said he was arrested on “trumped up” charges, pushing back against landmark China-imposed national security legislation that has raised questions about press freedoms and the future of the democracy movement.
“They’re trumped up. I can’t go further on the details,” Lai said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Before any evidence, they just claimed and presumed that I’m guilty. This isn’t the way the law is. I should be presumed innocent. We have never supported the independence of Hong Kong.”
He said Hong Kong’s future as Asia’s main financial hub was uncertain if there was no respect for the rule of law under the new security measures.
Lai has the highest profile of more than 20 democracy activists so far arrested under the national security law, which bars subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers. Hong Kong police on Monday arrested Lai along with his sons and senior executives of his media company, Next Digital Ltd., on suspicion of collusion under the security law imposed by China on June 30.
The case has put new strain on already-fraught ties between the U.S. and China, with President Donald Trump calling the arrest “a terrible thing." The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on senior Hong Kong officials including Chief Executive Carrie Lam and has led international condemnation of the law, calling it an attempt to crush Hong Kong’s political opposition.“The future of Hong Kong is the future of any other Chinese city,” he added. “Without the rule of law, the international financial center will be finished.” He added that the law sent a “very negative” message to the business community in Hong Kong and overseas.
Reporters last week live-streamed a handcuffed Lai being led through the headquarters of his flagship Apple Daily newspaper. Its vocal criticism of the pro-Beijing establishment and support for last year’s historic protests helped make it a symbol of the press freedoms guaranteed to the former British colony.
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