Lai, a British and Hong Kong citizen and a founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, is considered one of the most high-profile political arrestees in Hong Kong 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 conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiracy to publish seditious material.
Lai and others are accused of requesting a foreign country or organisation - especially the US - "impose sanctions or blockade, or engage in other hostile activities" against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.
One example of Lai's alleged collusion were meetings in July 2019 with then US 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.
Jimmy Lai is a Champion of Freedom & I was honored to welcome him to the White House in 2019. Today, he sits in prison for his support of Democracy in Hong Kong & — Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) @VoCommunism rightly awarded him their Highest Honor for his Courageous Commitment to Freedom. God Bless Jimmy Lai.🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/oU69TSkex2June 11, 2021
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 on Wednesday.
Lai said he had asked Pompeo: "Not to do something but to say something. To voice out its support for Hong Kong."
On Taiwan, Lai said he had sought to connect former US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz and retired US general Jack Keane to an interlocutor for former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen.
"Tsai and myself are friends, so we always talk about US policy," he told the court, explaining he had sought to connect both sides to create an unofficial channel between then-US president Donald Trump and the Tsai administration to bolster mutual understanding.
Beijing said no one could engage in illegal activities on the pretext of freedom and try to escape legal sanctions.
"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," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in relation to Lai's trial.
Jimmy Lai's pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was shuttered and Lai was arrested. (AP PHOTO)
Lai, however, told the West Kowloon Magistrates Court how his own guiding principles were aligned through his newspaper and with the people of Hong Kong, namely a belief in the rule of law and freedoms including of speech, religion and assembly.
"We were always in support of movements for freedom," Lai told the packed courtroom.
He said he was against Hong Kong and Taiwan independence.
About 100 people queued in the rain to secure a place in the court amid tight security.
Six others people had earlier pleaded guilty, including senior staffers of Apple Daily and its parent company Next Digital, to conspiring with Lai.
One of these, Cheung Kim-hung, the former chief executive of Next Digital told the court earlier that Lai had pushed for US sanctions against Hong Kong and China.
Beijing imposed the national security law in July 2020 after months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the Asian financial hub the year before.
Security was tight head of Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai's national security trial. (AP PHOTO)
Lai had been held in pre-trial detention for more than 1400 days before his trial began last December.
He is already serving a five-year, nine-month jail term for a fraud conviction over a lease dispute for his newspaper.
Diplomats from the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Switzerland and Ireland were present at the hearing.
The US government has condemned Lai's prosecution and called for his immediate release.
If convicted, the 76-year-old could be jailed for life, and his plight could emerge as a friction point between the US and China in the new Trump administration.
When asked in October whether he would speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping to get Lai out of China if he won the election, President-elect Donald Trump told conservative political commentator Hugh Hewitt in a podcast: "100 per cent".
"I'll get him out. He'll be easy to get out," Trump said.
