Hong Kong’s Apple Daily yesterday said that its board would decide whether to close the publication at their next meeting on Friday, after an asset freeze by authorities using the National Security Law left the outspoken media group unable to pay its employees.
Apple Daily has long been a thorn in Beijing’s side, with unapologetic support for the territory’s democracy movement and caustic criticism of China’s authoritarian leaders.
Its owner Jimmy Lai (黎智英) is in jail and was among the first to be charged under the security law after its imposition by Beijing last year. Its chief editor and chief executive were detained last week and its finances frozen under the legislation, which Beijing has used to stamp out dissent in Hong Kong.
Photo: AP
The remaining board members met yesterday to discuss the newspaper’s future.
“The board ... decided to meet again on Friday to decide whether to terminate Apple Daily,” the paper said in a short push notification to readers.
The newspaper’s closure would shutter one of the few remaining Hong Kong dailies willing to be critical of China’s authoritarian leaders. It would also be a huge victory for the authorities, who have made no secret of their desire to see the outlet silenced.
In an interview with CNN, Mark Simon, a senior aide to Lai, said that last week’s freeze order had crippled the newspaper’s ability to do business.
“Our problem at Apple Daily is not that we don’t have funds, we have US$50 million in the bank,” Simon said. “Our problem is the secretary of security and the police will not let us pay our reporters, they will not let us pay our staff and they will not let us pay our vendors. They have locked up our accounts.”
Lai, 73, is in prison for attending democracy protests in 2019. He faces a life sentence if convicted of national security crimes.
More than 500 police officers on Thursday last week raided the paper’s newsroom and arrested five executives over a series of articles that police said called for international sanctions.
Two of those executives — editor-in-chief Ryan Law (羅偉光) and Next Digital Ltd (壹傳媒) chief executive officer and Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung (張劍虹) — have been charged with “colluding” with foreign forces to undermine China’s national security and were remanded into custody at the weekend.
Lai’s personal assets in Hong Kong and his media company shares were frozen last month. Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee (李家超) on Thursday last week said that a further HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) of company assets had been blocked.
“These are all orders from basically the secretary of security. We are facing a security agency, we are not facing courts,” Simon told CNN.
Simon is himself wanted by Hong Kong police on national security charges, but left the territory last year and has since relocated to the US.
Apple Daily said that it was planning to ask Lee to unfreeze some money so it can pay 700 employees. If the application is unsuccessful, the paper said it planned to go to court.
The Hong Kong Security Bureau declined to comment on whether it had been contacted by the newspaper, citing ongoing legal proceedings.
“Endangering national security is a very serious crime,” a bureau spokesperson said. “We handle such crimes according to the law.”
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
‘NARWHAL’: The indigenous submarine completed its harbor acceptance test recently and is now under heavy guard as it undergoes tests in open waters, a source said The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, yesterday began sea trials, sailing out of the Port of Kaohsiung, a military source said. Also known as the “Narwhal,” the vessel departed from CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard at about 8am, where it had been docked. More than 10 technicians and military personnel were on deck, with several others standing atop the sail. After recently completing its harbor acceptance test, the vessel has started a series of sea-based trials, including tests of its propulsion and navigational systems, while partially surfaced, the source said. The Hai Kun underwent tests in the port from