Hong Kong leader raises Jimmy Lai conviction in meeting with China’s Xi

HONG KONG, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s leader said on Tuesday he raised the conviction of pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in a meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, one day after the media mogul was found guilty of collusion with foreign forces.

John Lee did not give details on how Xi responded to Lai’s guilty verdict in the landmark national security trial, but said Xi encouraged Hong Kong authorities to continue in their efforts to safeguard national security.

The landmark case has drawn international scrutiny of Hong Kong’s judicial independence amid a years-long crackdown on rights and freedoms in the global financial hub after 2019 pro-democracy protests that Beijing saw as a challenge to its rule.

Lee said some foreign media outlets had “misled” the public in their reporting of the Lai conviction.

“Some organisations, particularly foreign media organisations, deliberately misled the public, deliberately whitewash the criminal act of Lai,” Lee told reporters.

“These (foreign media) organisations’ objective is to obscure Lai’s shameless acts and subversive action, as an agent of external forces, to infiltrate and brainwash young people,” Lee added.

While 78-year-old Lai’s supporters see him as a freedom fighter, Beijing regards him as a mastermind of pro-democracy protests and a conspirator advocating for U.S. sanctions against Hong Kong and the mainland.

(Reporting by James Pomfret and Jessie Pang; Editing by Andrew Heavens)