Jimmy Lai: I didn’t ask senior US figures to take action against Hong Kong

Jimmy Lai faces national security charges (AP)

Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai denied asking then-US vice president Mike Pence and then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo to take action against the city and China at meetings with them during the territory’s anti-government protests of 2019.

Lai, founder of the now-closed Apple Daily pro-democracy newspaper, was arrested in 2020 in the crackdown that followed the protests.