HK Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Arrested Under National Security Law, Top Aide Says

HONG KONG—Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been arrested for what the pro-Beijing government says is suspected collusion with foreign forces under the new national security law, his top aide said on Twitter, in what is the highest-profile arrest yet under the legislation.

Lai has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing, which imposed the sweeping new law on Hong Kong on June 30, drawing condemnation from Western countries.

The new security law punishes anything China’s communist party considers subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Critics say it crushes freedoms in the former British colony, while the communist party say it will bring “stability” in the face of ongoing anti-communist party and pro-democracy protests last year, which have continued this year despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time,” Mark Simon, a senior executive at Lai’s media company Next Digital, which publishes local tabloid Apple Daily, said early on Monday.

Police did not immediately comment.

Lai was also arrested this year on illegal assembly charges, along with other leading activists, relating to protests last year.

In an interview with Reuters in May, Lai pledged to stay in Hong Kong and continue to fight for democracy even though he expected to be one of the targets of the new legislation.

The Epoch Times contributed to this article.

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https://www.theepochtimes.com/hk-media-tycoon-jimmy-lai-arrested-under-national-security-law-top-aide-says_3455698.html

Chip supplier Qualcomm seeks to avert ‘costly’ US ban on exports to Huawei

One of the world’s best-known chipmakers, Qualcomm is reportedly lobbying the US government to lift restrictions on dealing with Chinese tech giant Huawei not to lose the lucrative client to foreign rivals.

Qualcomm, which was one of the first American companies forced to cut ties with Huawei following last year’s blacklisting, wants to sell the Chinese company its chips for 5G phones, the Wall Street Journal reported citing a presentation by Qualcomm. The developer is still barred from selling the technology to Huawei under US regulations targeting Chinese businesses.

The chipmaker said that the restrictions could have cost it as much as $8 billion in lost annual revenue. According to Qualcomm, the ban failed to stop Huawei from getting necessary components elsewhere and only gave more market share to other firms to which Huawei turned to in order to beat Washington's pressure.

Qualcomm named South Korea’s Samsung and Taiwan’s MediaTek among the possible winners from the ban, saying that the policies have “inadvertently created massive financial opportunities for the two foreign competitors.” Earlier media reports indicated that Huawei had already sought to deepen ties with the latter, ordering more than 120 million chips from it.

Last year, the Trump administration put Huawei on a trade blacklist, officially known as the Entity List, effectively forbidding US businesses, including the likes of Qualcomm and Intel, from selling products to the Chinese tech giant unless granted special permission. The measures were toughened in May to prevent all foreign companies using US technology from selling semiconductors to the Chinese firm.

https://www.rt.com/business/497510-qualcomm-huawei-export-ban/