Beijing says embassy 'never invited' Jimmy Lai to dinner while he was in Myanmar

Beijing's top foreign ministry representative in Hong Kong has dismissed as "purely fictitious" claims that the Chinese embassy in Myanmar invited Next Media chairman Jimmy Lai Chee-ying to dinner during his trip to the country last year.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong said: "It has been confirmed that the Chinese embassy in Yangon never invited [Lai] to any banquet last year."

He said the dinner invitation claim, by Lai's top aide Mark Simon, was "purely fictitious". The spokesman could not be reached for further comment yesterday.

Conspiracy theories abound after media revelations last week that Lai had a private meeting with former US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz on a yacht off Sai Kung for five hours late last month.

The meeting was highly sensitive, as Beijing has warned repeatedly against "interference in Hong Kong affairs" by "outside forces" amid growing tensions over electoral reform.

Lai later said that he and Wolfowitz had known each other for a long time and that he had neither received foreign funding nor had any links with foreign powers. He said he and Wolfowitz had gone swimming.