Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is not a "democracy or press freedom fighter", but a pawn of Western countries, veteran political scientist Lau Siu-kai said on Wednesday.

Speaking to China Daily, Lau, a consultant with the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, said Western countries attempt to portray Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, as such a fighter to their advantage in an ideological war.

The city’s High Court on Monday convicted Lai on all three charges against him — two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security; and one of conspiracy to publish seditious materials.

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In Lau’s opinion, the West used Lai’s case as a pretext to launch an ideological war against China.

By portraying Lai as a so-called “democracy and press freedom fighter", they were trying to smear the status of China's judicial system, press freedom, human rights and democracy situation and incite dissatisfaction in the international community toward China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Lau said. With the same goal, they spread rumors that Lai suffered inhumane treatment throughout the legal proceedings.

"In fact, during the 156 days of open trial, Lai himself testified in court for 52 days. Everyone could see he was in good health," said Lau, expressing disappointment at Western media for disregarding the facts.

He further criticized the "double standards" of certain Western countries in this case. "If Lai were to use press freedom as a pretext to incite hatred against the British or United States governments, he would undoubtedly face legal consequences there as well," Lau added.

Lau also emphasized that professional journalism requires reporting based on factual evidence —a basic standard Lai clearly failed to meet. This failure, he noted, renders Lai's self-proclaimed title as a 'media fighter' entirely baseless.