ABC News Praises 'Pro-Democracy Dissident' With Oligarch Chic
ABC News presents Jimmy Lai as a 'fierce critic of Beijing,' a 'pro-democracy dissident' rising from humble beginnings. What never seems to make the highlight reel is the verifiable fact that Lai's media empire, specifically his Apple Daily publication, received substantial funding from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and others to the tune of $4.17 million between 1994 and 2020 ,
as reported by outlets like The Grayzone and Asia Times . It appears that some 'critics of Beijing' are just critics with a lucrative (and foreign-backed) business model. The narrative of an independent, self-made freedom fighter gets a lot less heroic when you realize he's being bankrolled by the same governments seeking to destabilize the region for their own strategic gains. One wonders if ABC
would hail Julian Assange with such reverence.