By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-07 13:01:44 | Updated at 2025-01-08 12:29:55
23 hours ago
Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying came under fire from two High Court judges on Tuesday after calling on Taiwan to join a US-led strategic alliance to protect itself against mainland China, maintaining the self-ruled island could become part of it without having independent status.
Lai, 77, pressed on with his oral testimony in his national security trial, as he continued to offer justifications for his allegedly offensive remarks made after Beijing’s imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020.
West Kowloon Court heard that the founder of the now defunct Apple Daily tabloid advocated for Taiwan’s participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, comprising the United States, Japan, Australia and India, in an episode of his online commentary programme “Live Chat with Jimmy Lai” on November 12, 2020.
Lai, who has pleaded not guilty to three conspiracy charges concerning foreign collusion and sedition, said Taiwan could benefit from “the hegemony of US protection”.
“Well, if they join together, that means the four countries would become one force and would become secure from outside interference or outside suppression or outside invasion,” he told the court on Tuesday.
