Hong Kong democrat Jimmy Lai on Wednesday testified for the first time in his landmark national security trial, saying he had never tried to influence the foreign policy of other countries, such as the U.

Jimmy Lai, the pugnacious Hong Kong media tycoon whose now shuttered tabloid Apple Daily was a regular thorn in Beijing’s side, took the stand Wednesday in his own defense for the first time in a high stakes national security trial that could send him to prison for life.