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Lai, 76, is the most high-profile person to be charged with violating China’s state-backed national security law.
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai has pleaded not guilty to charges of incitement and collusion with foreign forces in a landmark security trial.
Lai, 76, could face life in prison if convicted of endangering China’s national security.
His case has sparked an international backlash and is widely seen as a test of Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
Mr Rai has been in solitary confinement since December 2020 after being arrested on charges of fraud and involvement in protests in the former British colony.
He is a British national, and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron is among those calling for his release.
He is the most high-profile person to be charged with violating the Chinese government-backed National Security Law (NSL), which critics say is being used to suppress dissent. .
Hours before he was charged in 2020, Lai told the BBC in an interview that he considered himself a “born rebel” with a “very rebellious personality.”
Mr. Lai founded Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper that is now out of print. He has also been at the forefront of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, from the 2014 Umbrella Movement to mass demonstrations against the Chinese government-backed extradition bill five years later.
He is one of more than 250 activists, parliamentarians and protesters detained on NSL and sedition charges.
NSL was introduced in 2020 in response to large-scale democracy movements. The Chinese government says it needs to quell the unrest. He also referred to Mr. Lai as a traitor who seeks to undermine China’s security.
Mr. Lai was born in 1947 in southern China’s Guangzhou province. When he was 12 years old he left China and fled to Hong Kong by boat as a stowaway.
In Hong Kong, Mr. Lai worked in a garment factory and taught himself English. Afterwards, he founded the global apparel brand Giordano.
After tanks crushed Beijing’s pro-democracy protests in 1989, his career turned toward political activism and media.
In 2021, he was sentenced to 13 months in prison for the first time in Hong Kong for participating in a banned vigil for the Tiananmen massacre.