By James Pomfret and Jessie Pang
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong democrat Jimmy Lai testified on Wednesday for the first time in his landmark national security trial, saying he had never tried to influence the foreign policy of countries such as the United States, towards China and Hong Kong.
The arrest of Lai, 76, a British and Hong Kong citizen and a founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Daily, is considered one of the most high-profile under a sweeping China-imposed national security law.
His testimony comes just a day after Hong Kong jailed 45 pro-democracy activists for up to 10 years in a separate national security case.
Lai has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
During the trial it was alleged that Lai and others had requested an organisation or foreign country, chiefly the United States "to impose sanctions or blockade, or engage in other hostile activities" on the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.
One example of Lai's alleged collusion was meetings in July 2019 with then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the political crisis in Hong Kong as mass pro-democracy and anti-China protests intensified.
Under oath in court on Wednesday, Lai denied asking anything specific of Pence.
"I would not dare to ask the vice president to do anything. I would just relay to him what happened in Hong Kong when he asked me," Lai told the court.
Lai said he had asked Pompeo: "Not to do something but to say something. To voice ... support for Hong Kong."
On Taiwan, Lai said he had sought to connect former U.S. deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz and retired U.S. general Jack Keane to an interlocutor for former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen.
"Tsai and myself are friends, so we always talk about U.S. policy," he told the court, explaining that he had sought in this way to set up an unofficial channel between then U.S. President Donald Trump and the Tsai administration to bolster mutual understanding.
In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman said no one could engage in illegal activities and escape legal sanction.
"Jimmy Lai is the main planner and participant in the anti-China and anti-Hong Kong incident, and is the agent and proxy of the anti-China forces," Lin Jian, told reporters in relation to Lai's trial.
Lai, however, told the high court how his own guiding principles were aligned through his newspaper with the people of Hong Kong, namely a belief in the rule of law and freedoms including those of speech, religion and assembly.
"We were always in support of movements for freedom," Lai, wearing a grey blazer and spectacles, told a packed courtroom. He added that he opposed Hong Kong and Taiwan independence.
About 100 people queued in pouring rain huddled under umbrellas to secure a place in the court, with scores of police deployed in and around the building.
"Apple Daily was the voice of many Hong Kongers," said retiree William Wong, 64. "It's my political expression to let him (Lai) know I support him. He's done a lot for Hong Kong."
Among those who pleaded guilty earlier to charges of conspiring with Lai were senior staffers of Apple Daily and its parent company Next (LON:NXT) Digital.
One of them was Cheung Kim-hung, the former chief executive of Next Digital, who told the court Lai had pushed for U.S. sanctions against Hong Kong and China.
Beijing imposed the national security law (NSL) in July 2020 after sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the Asian financial hub the previous year.
Before the law was passed, Lai said in court he had urged some newsroom staffers not to take a stance against former U.S. president Donald Trump, whom he hoped could "help us to stop the NSL."
However, he added he had never met Trump in person, nor directly communicated with him.
Lai had been held in pre-trial detention for more than 1,400 days, before his trial kicked off last December. He is already serving a nearly six-year jail term for fraud.
Diplomats from Australia, Britain, the European Union and the United States attended the hearing.
The U.S. government has condemned Lai's prosecution and called for his release, with his case shaping as a possible point of friction between the United States and China in the new Trump administration.
Asked last month whether he would speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping to get Lai out of China if he won the election, president-elect Trump told conservative political commentator Hugh Hewitt in a podcast: "100%".
"I'll get him out. He'll be easy to get out," Trump said.