Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government
While Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai continues his testimony pleading his innocence in his sedition and collusion with foreign forces trial, former US Vice President Mike Pence called for his release, and US lawmakers introduced a bill asking President Trump to review imposing sanctions on Hong Kong officials for human rights violations.
On January 23, speaking in Hong Kong at the UBS Wealth Insights summit, Pence called for the release of Lai with, “there is probably no more compelling gesture in the short term to send a message of good will to the people of the United States, or the free world, than if China were to take steps to free Jimmy Lai.”
Pence is a lawyer and should know better. A person cannot be released during a trial just on the whim of a friend. In fact, Pence offered no evidence why Lai should be released and in reality, he was using Lai as a political weapon, as he had done with the USB summit.
Pence’s comment at a supposedly financial conference, drew the ire of the Hong Kong SAR government which said the remark was "a shameless interference with the course of justice and on Hong Kong's righteous efforts in safeguarding national security".
Earlier, the Chief Justice, Andrew Cheung, hit out at critics undermining the rule of law in Hong Kong during the opening of the Legal Year by describing the politization of the Court as “deplorable.”
Why do the Americans insist on meddling in Hong Kong affairs on matters that do not concern them? A Hong Kong SAR Government spokesman said Pence's comments were intended "to influence the fairness of the trial with malicious intent".
It’s part of the US DNA to interfere in everybody’s business.
If Hong Kong commented on Trumps pardoning of the Capitol Hill assault, which made him complicit in the riots, the US administration would have immediately imposed sanctions on Hong Kong.
Pence and Lai are old friends and Lai admitted in court that he had visited Pence in the White House along with other government officials, including warmonger Mike Pompeo. But he denied asking them to sanction Hong Kong or mainland officials.
Lai also has the full support of Trump who had been asked by the press if he would request Chinese President Xi Jinping to free Lai. He replied: “100 per cent I will get him out.”
And just before arriving in Hong Kong, Pence made a stopover in Taiwan and called on President Trump to renew his pledge to support Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
Speaking during the Taiwan visit on January 17, Pence said China’s annexation of the island would impact global trade, technology and nuclear proliferation.
After listening to the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Report on Saturday, one gets the feeling that all of America firmly believes that Jimmy Lai has done no wrong. That is because the US public does not seek information on the outside world, unless it is provided by the US propaganda machine. It is so slick that the everyday American believes whatever is fed to them by the MSM (mainstream media) including the Washington Post, now owned by Jeff Bezos, a Trump supporter, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdock, who also owns Fox News and another Trump supporter etc. It therefore comes as no surprise that Trump was elected President with such heavy media support brainwashing the American public.
Meanwhile, the House of China-bashers (aka the House of Representatives) have decided to start the New Year afresh with a blast by introducing a bill requiring the Trump administration to review whether Hong Kong officials should be sanctioned for human rights violations.
The "Hong Kong Sanctions Act" requires the U.S. president to determine whether dozens of Hong Kong officials violated human rights and whether sanctions should be imposed under legislation including the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 or the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.
On the 33day of his defence testimony, Lai told the court that he only had a “vague” understanding of the Magnitsky Act and denied that he was asking Washington to impose sanctions on Hong Kong through his correspondences with former US officials.
Indeed, most of the month has been a busy one for the China bashers as we enter the Year of the Snake. If the doomsday prophets continue on this path, the snake may turn around and bite them.
Mark Pinkstone
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
The Hong Kong government amended its National Security Law implementation rules, making it a criminal offense to refuse providing police with electronic device passwords for accessing data in national security cases.
Such 'unlock orders' are standard practice across Western democracies. Yet the US Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macau seized on this March 16, issuing a travel alert claiming the amendments grant authorities sweeping powers to confiscate personal devices—and assuring US citizens they can contact the consulate if detained.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong responded swiftly. Special Commissioner Cui Jianchun set up a meeting with US Consul General Julie Eadeh the very next day, lodging formal objections and demanding the US cease interfering in Hong Kong and Chinese internal affairs.
The timing was pointed: the US imposes far stricter device-access rules on travelers entering the US, yet lectures Hong Kong on civil liberties—a textbook case of double standards.
US Double Standards on Device Access
The US Consulate General's travel warning about Hong Kong rings hollow. It reminds me of a case on June 11, 2025 when a Norwegian tourist Mikkelson landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, only to be harassed by US border officers. They grilled him about drug trafficking, terrorism, and far-right extremism—without cause. When he refused to unlock his phone, they threatened him with a $5,000 fine and five years in prison.
A Norwegian tourist told his story that he was deported by the US after his phone contained a meme of Vance.
Mikkelson had no choice. US border officers found a meme on his phone: Vice President Vance's head photoshopped into a bald egg. That image was enough. They deported him back to Norway the same day.
The contrast is stark. Hong Kong police must obtain a court warrant based on reasonable suspicion before demanding phone access in national security cases. US border personnel demand it arbitrarily. Hong Kong's maximum penalty is one year imprisonment; Mikkelson faced threats of five years. The US enforces stricter laws itself, yet issues travel warnings about Hong Kong's comparable requirements. The hypocrisy is hard to miss.
US Interests in Global Destabilization
The United States has a stake in the game. It kindles color revolutions worldwide, topples governments across multiple nations, and deploys military force to meddle in other countries' internal affairs. So it bristles at national security laws—they threaten its ability to destabilize rivals and reshape global politics on its terms.
Fang Haoming, a 26-year-old Iraqi journalist, captured the paradox perfectly in an interview before this year's National Committee of the CPPCC. "This is not a peaceful era," he said. "We simply live in a peaceful country. I hope through my reporting, more people around the world can understand how China has achieved peace."
His story bears this out. Born in Baghdad in 2000, Fang's childhood was ravaged by war. When he was three, in 2003, the United States launched its invasion of Iraq on the claim that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction—a charge it never substantiated. At the UN, US officials presented a small vial of unidentified white powder as evidence. Then the US attacked anyway, overthrowing the anti-US Iraq president Saddam Hussein.
The conflict shattered Fang's family. His childhood memories are filled with air raid shelters and explosions. When war made Iraq uninhabitable, the family fled to Syria as refugees. The displacement devastated their circumstances. His mother, once a PhD holder and English professor, could only work as a restaurant waitress, teaching English at night to supplement the family income.
In 2011, when Fang was 11, he experienced warfare for the second time. Syria erupted into civil war—another US-backed attempt to overthrow a sitting president Bashar al-Assad. Fang’s father made a decisive choice: the family would flee to China and seek stability. After arriving, they settled in Yinchuan, Ningxia. At 11 years old, Fang finally entered a classroom for formal education. That stability, he would later reflect, was extraordinarily precious.
Rebuilding Life in Peaceful China
Fang Haoming completed his primary and secondary education in Yinchuan, Ningxia, then entered Beifang Minzu University in 2017 to study Chinese language and international trade. His original name was Ameen, but he later adopted the surname Fang from his university's name and took the given name Haoming. After graduation, he joined China-Arab Satellite Television as a reporter based in Beijing. Moving to China transformed his life entirely.
Fang Haoming, who grew up in Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Fang Haoming's story reveals how the wars and turmoil launched by the United States have destroyed families. It also shows how China maintains national security and stability, enabling people to rebuild their lives.
This story underscores why safeguarding national security really matters. Those who oppose these laws are precisely those seeking to undermine our country's security and stability.
Lo Wing-hung
