Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Businessman Jimmy Lai Testifies in Landmark Trial |
Lai denied charges of colluding with foreign forces and sedition today in a case that carries a potential maximum sentence of life in prison. The founder of the now-shuttered newspaper Apple Daily is one of Hong Kong’s highest-profile defendants since a sweeping national security law was introduced in 2020. Prosecutors have tried to portray Lai as a mastermind of the country’s 2019 pro-democracy movement; while some 2019 demonstrators backed Hong Kong independence, Lai called that position “too crazy to think about” in his testimony. Lai said that he never used his foreign contacts to influence foreign policy on Hong Kong and that the Apple Daily simply championed the “core values of the people of Hong Kong,” including “rule of law, freedom,” and “pursuit of democracy.”
Lai, who holds a British and Hong Kong passport, is already serving an over five-year prison sentence for a separate case, and his testimony comes on the heels of the sentencing of dozens of prominent pro-democracy figures yesterday on subversion charges. U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer are among the politicians who have called for Lai’s release, with Starmer raising the issue yesterday with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Brazil. (Reuters, FT BBC, CNN)
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“[Hong Kong’s] courts under the National Security Law are basically controlled by the mainland,” former U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong James B. Cunningham said at a CFR meeting. “Media has been cowed or crushed. Jimmy Lai, who led the most robust media outlet in Hong Kong, has been arbitrarily imprisoned, his media company taken away from him, and numerous other media entities, international and domestic, have received a very clear message that there are lines that are not to be crossed.”
“The national-security law enacted in 2020 and a new one passed this year have instilled a certain amount of fear in Hong Kong’s liberals. Whereas once they might have chanted protest songs or waved banners outside a trial of this sort [that saw a sentencing yesterday], no such dissent was on display this time. Many democrats are pessimistic that the spirit of 2019 can be recaptured,” the Economist writes.
This Backgrounder by Lindsay Maizland and CFR’s Clara Fong looks at how China is cracking down in Hong Kong.
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Taiwanese Foreign Minister Begins Europe Tour in Brussels |
Lin Chia-lung visited an electronics research hub and met with a group of European Parliament members. The tour follows precedent from Taiwan’s previous government; Lin is also visiting Lithuania. (Bloomberg)
CFR expert David Sacks outlines why Taiwan’s democracy is thriving in China’s shadow.
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China, Pakistan Announce First Joint Counterterrorism Drills in Five Years |
The drills follow a series of attacks on Chinese nationals in Pakistan, a destination for China’s Belt and Road Initiative investments. They will take place later this month into mid-December, China’s defense ministry said. (SCMP)
Afghanistan: UN agencies are drawing up plans to channel an initial nearly $19 million in new international climate funding to Afghanistan for the first time since the Taliban took over. The UN agencies themselves would administer the climate projects in the country. The Taliban sent observers to the annual climate talks in Baku for the first time. (Reuters)
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Middle East and North Africa |
Netanyahu Announces $5 Million Reward for Each Hostage Freed From Gaza |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited an Israeli military position in the Gaza Strip yesterday and vowed that Hamas would not rule the enclave after the war. In addition to the monetary reward, he also offered a safe passage out of Gaza for those who turned over a hostage. (Times of Israel)
Iraq: Baghdad kicked off its first national census in decades today. While a census in 1997 excluded the Kurdish region, Iraqi officials said agreements with Kurdish and other ethnic representatives will allow all ethnic groups to be counted. (AP)
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Somaliland Opposition Wins Election |
Opposition leader Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, popularly known as Irro, will become the breakaway region of Somaliland’s sixth president. While campaigning, he said he would review a controversial port access deal with Ethiopia, hinting at a possible shift in stance from the incumbent. Irro also declared that he would continue relations with Taiwan. (BBC)
South Africa: Officials said they are rewriting South Africa’s long-term electricity plan to reflect an improvement in the performance of state-owned power utility Eskom this year. Eskom, known for rolling out chronic blackouts, has not enacted power cuts since March. (Reuters)
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Report: U.S. Will Give Anti-Personnel Land Mines to Ukraine |
The White House authorized the transfer of the weapons to Ukraine to blunt Russia’s attacks on its front lines, unnamed U.S. officials told the Washington Post. More than 160 countries have signed an international treaty banning the use of such weapons. Kyiv has committed not to use them in densely populated areas, the officials said. The Kremlin has already been deploying these mines against Ukraine. (WaPo)
CFR’s Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow show in nine graphics how much U.S. support is going to Ukraine.
Germany/Sweden: Germany believes that damage to cross-country undersea cables in the Baltic Sea since Sunday was “caused by sabotage,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said; Sweden’s civil defense minister also said that a preliminary investigation into sabotage had begun. The two damaged cables run between Finland and Germany, and Lithuania and Sweden. (The Guardian)
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Brazilian Authorities Arrest Five Over Alleged Military Plot to Kill Lula |
Authorities arrested five people, including a deputy minister of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet yesterday. Police said they had uncovered a plan to use military expertise to assassinate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Geraldo Alckmin days before stepping into office as president and vice president, as well as an unnamed Supreme Court justice. (Reuters, NYT)
U.S./Venezuela: The United States described Venezuela’s Edmundo González as rightful president-elect for the first time, deepening Washington’s repudiation of Nicolás Maduro’s claim that he won the country’s July election. Many countries around the world have also failed to recognize Maduro’s claim since Caracas has not released customary disaggregated voting data as proof. (El País)
CFR expert Will Freeman writes about the decision Latin America has to make about Venezuela.
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Trump Names Picks for Commerce, Education, and Medicare |
The president-elect announced he will nominate financial services CEO Howard Lutnick as leader of the Commerce Department, Trump’s first-term Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education, and doctor and former TV personality Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (WSJ, NPR, CNN)
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UN Launches Fund to Tackle Climate Disinformation |
The United Nations is presenting a new initiative to tackle climate disinformation at COP29 in Baku yesterday after it was unveiled yesterday at the G20 summit. Brazil and the United Nations science and education agency are partners in the effort; it aims to raise $10 to $15 million over the next three years and develop public awareness campaigns. Chile, Denmark, France, Morocco, the UK, and Sweden said they will sign on. (UNFCCC, UN News)
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