The founder of Hong Kong’s most prominent anti-communist newspaper, Apple Daily‘s Jimmy Lai, vowed to “fight on” after being released on bail Wednesday.
Hong Kong police arrested Lai for the third time this year on Monday in a raid on the newspaper featuring over 200 officers.
Apple Daily has stood consistently in defense of the pro-democracy protest movement in Hong Kong. Lai himself has marched in protests throughout the past year against the Chinese Communist Party usurping Hong Kong’s legal autonomy. While Apple Daily reported on Wednesday that Lai has not yet received formal criminal charges following his arrest, Chinese state media suggested that he was arrested – along with about ten others, including his two sons Ian and Timothy and the popular pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow – suggest he is facing charges of violating the Chinese “national security” law.
China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing, which is not legally allowed to legislate in Hong Kong, passed a law in May commanding a minimum of ten years in prison for crimes endangering the “national security” of the Communist Party. It lists four crimes in particular – “secession,” “terrorism,” incitement to foreign interference, and “subversion of state power.” Lai will likely face charges under the foreign interference provision because Apple Daily has published opinion pieces suggesting other states impose sanctions on China for violating Hong Kong’s autonomy.
While not sovereign, Hong Kong reserves the right to legislate its own laws and not follow China’s under the “One Country, Two Systems” rule. Chief Executive Carrie Lam has defended the legality of the “national security” law by arguing that combatting the attacks against the Party, even verbal ones, falls under Beijing’s sovereign rights, a claim tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents have rejected in protests.
Lai returned to the offices of Apple Daily on Wednesday after his release on bail late Tuesday, musing about his fate to endure Chinese repression. Reporters and staff embraced him upon his return and greeting him with flowers.
“In the past few days in custody, I did ask myself a question… would I [rather] be somebody else instead of myself, ending up in custody and sleeping on the floor?” Lai told the newspaper’s staff, according to Apple Daily. “I don’t think I would have changed into another person even if I knew what would happen to me.”
“One’s character defines his destiny. I think this is the destiny chosen for me,” he asserted.
Lai vowed that the newspaper, which experienced an outpouring of support following the raid on its offices, “cannot let [its] supporters down” and vowed, “Apple Daily will fight on … I myself will go on.”
“It is a long-term battle and we are standing on the right side of history,” he said.
Lai took particular offense to the arrest of his sons, he said, as they do not work in media and have no ties to the operations of Apple Daily.
Apple Daily noted in reporting Lai’s remarks, “at the point of this interview, no charges have been officially laid against him.”
The publisher of the newspaper and CEO of its parent company, Next Digital, Cheung Kim-hung also issued statements Wednesday. Police also arrested Cheung and released him on bail. According to Apple Daily, Cheung is facing dubious charges of “conspiracy to defraud” the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. The newspaper did not elaborate on Cheung’s relationship with the corporation.
“We don’t know what will happen next, but Apple Daily’s first and foremost principle is to safeguard the freedom of the press. And we won’t back down,” Cheung said upon his return to the newspaper offices.
The raid on the newspaper’s offices lasted over six hours and involved more than 200 police officers, who staffers say confiscated dozens of boxes of files claiming them necessary for a police investigation. Officials claimed to have a warrant for the raid, but those on-site said that police did not clarify with what authority they entered the offices. Apple Daily announced on Tuesday it would take legal action to prevent the use of the seized materials in any criminal case given the unclear legality of its seizure.
Chinese state media has responded to the backlash against the raid by repeatedly attacking Lai personally, referring to him as “fat” and nicknaming him “Marijuana Lai,” apparently in an attempt to depict him as an untrustworthy drug user. On Wednesday, the Global Times, a Beijing propaganda outlet, proclaimed, “Lai is destined to be spurned by Chinese history.”
“He is a tragedy in which he, as a Chinese, picked the wrong side and walked on the wrong path. His argument over ‘freedom of the press’ cannot offset his betrayal in key moments – he acted as an agent and led the way for U.S. containment of China,” the Times claimed.
Despite Beijing’s attempts, the Apple Daily raid prompted record sales of the newspaper, which printed over half a million copies Tuesday instead of its usual 70,000 to satisfy popular demand. Shares of Next Digital also soared in price in the Hong Kong stock market as wealthy Hongkongers bought stocks to support the company.
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