Activist considered government-in-exile, court told
An activist reportedly backed by media mogul Jimmy Lai Cheeying considered setting up a government-in-exile to boost efforts to attract international sanctions against the city and mainland, a court has heard.
Andy Li Yu-hin also said yesterday that his text exchanges with a middleman affiliated with the tycoon included plans to become an opposition leader and sever ties with his family in case he was arrested under the national security law imposed by Beijing on the city four years ago.
Messaging logs dated August 2020 showed the middleman, known as “T” and later identified as Wayland Chan Tsz-wah, a paralegal, appealed to Li to prepare to become a fully fledged international lobbyist.
Prosecutors alleged Apple Daily founder Lai financed the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK) lobbying group and gave instructions to Li through Chan on triggering economic sanctions and other hostile acts by foreign governments.
Texts between Chan and Li, now a prosecution witness, also discussed which city political personality they felt should lead the opposition movement in the post-national security law era.
The names discussed included ex-opposition lawmaker Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang, former British consulate trade officer Simon Cheng Man-kit, United States-based activist Brian Leung Kai-ping and Andy Chan Ho-tin, an ex-activist for independence.
Li also highlighted the need for a prominent activist to establish a government-in-exile overseas to further their political agenda as part of the exchange.
He told West Kowloon Court that he and Chan had considered a move from the shadows into the limelight.
“If [I] don’t come out, Hong Kong will still be ruled by a regime controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” Li testified. “So [Hong Kong] has become a place with political persecution.”
Li told the court that the pair had also looked at the pros and cons of leaving Hong Kong in the face of a possible crackdown, but Chan felt he had to persist.
“As a leader, I have to be the last one standing,” the paralegal wrote in a message. “If I left, who will take the helm?”
Lai, 76, faces two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.
The court heard that after Lai’s arrest in August 2020, SWHK members suggested the removal of Chan from their Telegram chat group as they suspected he was “one of fatty Lai’s sons”, but the paralegal said the move was not necessary.
Anthony Chau Tin-hang, for the prosecution, asked Li to explain his involvement in an inquiry held by British politicians into the 2019 anti-government protests.
A press statement about the inquiry concluded Britain should “urgently impose Magnitsky-style sanctions on those responsible for permitting the excessive police violence at high level in the administration”.
Proposed targets for sanctions included then chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and the police chief at the time, Chris Tang Ping-keung, now the city’s security chief.
The document appeared to be prepared by the United Kingdombased Whitehouse Consultancy, which prosecutors argued was used by SWHK to help its lobbying efforts in the country.
But Li said he was unaware of how the consultancy firm collaborated with other UK-based Hong Kong activists.
Lai’s defence counsel is expected to start crossexamination of Li when the trial continues today.