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HONG KONG: A top adviser to pro-democracy Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has resigned after admitting he helped fund a controversial report alleging links between Joe Biden’s son and China, but he insisted on Sunday (Nov.1 ) that your boss was unaware of. that.
The 64-page document by a fictitious author, which circulated online and gripped supporters of President Donald Trump, alleges business connections between Biden’s beleaguered son Hunter and China.
But investigations in recent days have raised questions about its veracity and how it was compiled.
In a series of tweets over the weekend, Lai said senior assistant Mark Simon, a vocal critic for Biden, had “worked with the project.”
“Mark used money from my private company to reimburse the research he requested. It is only $ 10,000, so he did not need my approval,” Lai wrote.
“I know that it is difficult for someone to believe that I did not know and that my integrity is damaged,” he added.
READ: Hong Kong media chief distances himself from controversial Hunter Biden-China report
Simon resigned from Apple Daily for the weekend.
In emails sent to AFP on Sunday, Simon said he acted in his own capacity to pay for some of the investigations that ended up on the record.
“Apple Daily had nothing to do with the report and certainly Mr. Lai has nothing to do with it,” he said.
“Everyone was completely unaware that I was helping with research expenses.”
MANUFACTURED AUTHOR
On Friday, NBC released an investigation that said the 64-page file had “questionable authorship and anonymous origin.”
The investigation found that the listed author, a suspected Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, was a fabricated identity and that his image had been created using software.
According to NBC, blogger and scholar Christopher Balding, a former associate professor at Fulbright University in Vietnam, said he had contributed to the report and admitted that Aspen did not exist.
He said the report was “commissioned by Apple Daily,” Lai’s staunchly pro-democracy and anti-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The newspaper denied that characterization, as did Simon.
“Neither I nor anyone at Apple did anything in terms of research or writing, just no paper at all. All arms outstretched,” he said.
“$ 10,000 is within my discretion, but putting the Apple people and Jimmy in the line of fire was wrong. I was too casual in using the Apple Daily name, I abused the trust they had given me,” he added. explaining your decision to Quit.
Lai, 71, has long been a thorn in the side of Beijing and has spoken favorably of Trump’s willingness to take on China, the only major Hong Kong mogul willing to do so publicly.
His Apple Daily and Next Magazine newspapers are blatantly pro-democracy, and he is routinely vilified by China’s state media.
In Hong Kong, Apple Daily has the largest circulation.
Lai was one of the first people to be arrested under a new national security law that Beijing imposed in Hong Kong in June after the huge and often violent pro-democracy protests last year.
The Apple Daily newsroom was raided by more than 200 police officers and authorities accuse Lai of “colluding with foreign forces” and money laundering.
The investigation is ongoing, but Lai has said he fears authorities are trying to stifle a critical voice in the troubled city.
The Taiwan edition of Apple Daily recently published two articles on Hunter Biden and his ties to a Taiwanese businessman with ties to mainland China.
“I think Chris made a mistake going swashbuckling,” Simon said. “But our stories from Taiwan using the data are still strong.”
“Our stories from Taiwan using the data remain strong,” he added.
