Sasse calls China’s Xi a ‘coward’ after Apple Daily arrest

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “coward” after the former senior editor of the Apple Daily in Hong Kong was arrested.

“Chairman Xi is a coward — too afraid of what might happen if a pro-democracy newspaper tells the truth about his Communist Party,” Sasse said in a press release on Wednesday.

“We have a duty to shine a light on these arrests so the world knows about the truth-telling heroes at Apple Daily,” he added.

Former executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security.

Along with Lam, a former associate publisher and deputy chief editor were also arrested. All the employees had their bail revoked.

The arrest comes after the government stormed the newsroom to shut down the office and confiscate computers in June.

After the newsroom was raided, Sasse introduced a bill to give the staff and editors of the paper the Congressional Gold Medal for their work. 

“The men and women who ran Apple Daily are heroes. Let’s be clear about why they just ran their last issue: Their defense of free thought and speech made them scary to the Chinese Communist Party. They courageously stood up to kangaroo courts and told the truth. The Apple Daily journalists exposed Chairman Xi as a man afraid of the people he seeks to hold down. The free world owes them our gratitude and the least we can do is award them the Congressional Gold Medal,” Sasse said at the time. 

Hong Kong is currently cracking down on any political dissent in the city under the recently issued National Security Law.