Jimmy Lai testified for the first time in his years-long national security trial on Wednesday, taking a defiant stand against the Hong Kong government’s charges of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign countries.

In a pugnacious hearing, the billionaire publisher of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper repeatedly challenged the prosecution’s case that he asked foreign governments to sanction China or Hong Kong during the city’s pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Mr Lai, 76, said he had “hoped” then US President Donald Trump would prevent the imposition of national security laws because, if enacted, Apple Daily would be “finished”.

“But I did nothing about this, because I was not the president,” he added.

Under the national security law, there would be “no way for us to practice as independent media”, Lai said from the witness stand. “Subsequent events have proved I was right,” he added.

Mr Lai, who became a democracy advocate after Beijing’s crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, faces a maximum life sentence if convicted for collusion.