‘Don’t be misled,’ Beijing tells foreign media in Hong Kong after Jimmy Lai verdict
Commissioner’s office also writes to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, condemning their editorials on verdict
The Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong on Tuesday also sent letters to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, condemning their editorials on the verdict as “wilful distortion” and reaching “new heights of absurdity”, respectively.
The city’s High Court found Lai guilty of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious articles in his national security trial.
In the open letter, the office said: “I wish to draw your attention to some facts regarding this matter.”
A spokesman said Lai was not prosecuted for news reporting or expressing opinions through his media outlets, but rather for colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security, adding that “his case has nothing to do with press freedom”.
The letter said Lai often presented himself as a “so-called journalist”, but in reality, he was the primary mastermind and participant in a series of destabilising incidents, acting as a pawn of external anti-China forces.