Cheung is the former chief executive officer of the Next Digital Limited, a media company that published Apple Daily from 1995 to 2021, and Next Magazine from 1989 to 2021. [2]

On Aug. 10, 2020, Cheung was arrested along with the company’s Founder, Jimmy Lai, Lai’s two sons, and three other executives on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud. [3] Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers also raided Next Digital’s headquarter for hours. Cheung and Lai, both handcuffed, were brought to the building separately. [4] Police seized digital devices, documents, and detail of exiled activists for investigation.

On June 16, 2021, Hong Kong Police arrested Cheung again with four Apple Daily executives––including Next Digital Chief Operating Officer Royston Chow, Apple Daily editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong, associate publisher Chan Pui-man, and Apple Action News platform director Cheung Chi Wai––on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, a crime under Hong Kong’s national security law. 500 police officers raided Next Digital’s headquarter with a search warrant. Police searched news materials and evidence for a suspected violation of the National Security Law. When Cheung was brought to leave the building, he told the staff that “We shall hold on,” which was printed as the headline of the newspaper’s cover story the next day. [5] Chan, Chow, and Cheung Chi-wai was released on bail on June 18, after 40 hours of detention.

Prosecutors accused Lai, the six executives, and three Next Digital subsidiaries––Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited, and AD Internet Limited––of endangering national security by engaging with foreign countries, institutions, organizations, or individuals overseas in hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.

On Nov. 22, 2022, the six pled guilty to the collusion charge. Prosecutors agreed not to pursue the sedition charge, however the charge remains on the court file indefinitely. Mitigation submissions and sentencing of the six will be handled after Lai’s trial.