Hong Kongers rush to buy Lai’s paper, stocks in his company

Hong Kong’s markets watchdog had to urge investors to “exercise extreme caution” after shares of Next Digital Ltd rose more than 2,000% to a 12-year high, spurred by an online campaign for its detained owner media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

Lai was released on bail in the early hours of Wednesday morning, flanked by his lawyers, and greeted by a throng of supporters who chanted “fight till the end” and “support apple, have an apple a day”, referring to the pro-democracy tabloid.

Readers had queued from the early hours of Tuesday to get copies of the newspaper, a day after police raided its offices and took Lai into detention, the highest-profile arrest under the national law. “Apple Daily must fight on,” the front-page headline read, amid fears the new law is eroding media freedoms guaranteed when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

“The prayers and encouragement of many readers and writers make us believe that as long as there are readers, there will be writers, and that Apple Daily shall certainly fight on.” More than 500,000 copies were printed, compared with the usual 100,000, the paper said on its website.

Mainland-born Lai, who was smuggled into Hong Kong on a fishing boat when he was a penniless 12-year-old, is one of the most prominent democracy activists in the city and an ardent critic of Communist Party rule in Beijing.

The sweeping security law imposed on June 30 punishes anything China considers secession, subversion or terrorism.

The city’s Beijing-backed government and Chinese authorities say the law is necessary to restore order after months of at times violent anti-government protests last year, sparked by fears China was slowly eroding those freedoms. Police detained Lai for suspected collusion with foreign forces after about 200 officers searched the newspaper’s offices, collecting 25 boxes of evidence.

Handcuffed and apparently wearing the same clothes after spending the night in jail, he was driven by police on Tuesday to his yacht which police searched, according to media footage.

On his release, Lai left in a black car without speaking.

Beijing has labelled Lai a “traitor” in the past and issued a statement supporting his arrest.

The Beijing-backed China Daily newspaper said in an editorial Lai’s arrest showed “the cost of dancing with the enemy”.

Shares in Next Digital, which publishes Apple Daily, surged for a second day, gaining more than 2,078% from Friday’s close, after online pro-democracy forums called on investors to show support.

Its market value rose as high as HK$5.17 billion ($666.7 million) from some HK$200 million.

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