Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai raised his friendship with Taiwan's former President Tsai Ing-wen in groundbreaking testimony as he took the stand for the first time as his national security trial resumed. Prosecutors accuse the former publisher of using his connections to influence other countries' foreign policy on China.
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00:00A critical national security trial in Hong Kong has resumed, with pro-democracy newspaper
00:05Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai testifying for the first time after four years in detention.
00:11Lai has pleaded not guilty to the two charges against him.
00:15During his trial today, prosecutors alleged that Lai had sought to influence other countries,
00:19including the U.S., on their foreign policy towards China and Hong Kong, as well as connecting
00:24U.S. government officials to Taiwan's government.
00:27Our reporter Tiffany Wong has been following this story for us in Taipei.
00:30Tiffany, what's Lai's connection to Taiwan?
00:36In his very first testimony, media mogul Jimmy Lai said that Taiwan's former president Tsai
00:42Ing-wen was his friend and that they had previously discussed U.S. foreign policy together.
00:48He said that he had tried to introduce U.S. government officials to Tsai's administration
00:53after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016.
00:57He himself was pictured with several major politicians, but he said that he considered
01:03these high-profile contacts his friends and that he wasn't trying to use them as political
01:08connections.
01:09But he's been an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party, and he also called Taiwan
01:14the only democracy of Chinese people in his testimony.
01:18He said that he wanted to help Taiwan manage its relations with the U.S., which is its
01:22biggest unofficial ally.
01:24But he said that he did not support independence for Taiwan or for Hong Kong.
01:29Now as prosecutors look over the evidence, this is the first time we'll get to hear Lai's
01:34side of the story over this trial that's been brewing over the past four years.
01:40The national security trial is expected to last three to four more weeks as the court
01:44hears Lai's account of his dealings with these foreign politicians and also reviews 150 Apple
01:51Daily publications that have been submitted as evidence for that account of publishing
01:57seditious materials.