Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai pressed on with a campaign to seek intervention from the United States in Hong Kong affairs despite opposition, a former senior employee told his national security trial on Wednesday.

Chan Pui-man, former associate publisher of the now-defunct newspaper, testified that she had told her former boss it was “not appropriate” to promote the “One Hongkonger One Letter to Save Hong Kong” campaign in the name of Apple Daily.

But Lai was determined to press ahead in May 2020, when the national security law was about to be enacted, to draw the attention of then-US president Donald Trump, Chan said.

“I had mentioned that... why didn’t Lai do this in his own capacity? He could use his own name to purchase an advertisement on the front page of Apple Daily, instead of using Apple Daily to launch [the campaign],” she said.

Chan said after an advertisement was first published in the newspaper on May 24, she asked her former boss to stop promoting the campaign, citing criticism from student leader Joshua Wong.

According to messaging records, Lai admitted to Chan that “a lot of people don’t agree" with the campaign which also included barrister Martin Lee, but said it was a time of crisis where “we can’t pretend to be careful and clever” and “the only way is to be brave”.

The court heard the newspaper promoted the campaign for three days in total.

Meanwhile, the former associate publisher said she was asked by the defendant to provide “hot topics” for him to post on his Twitter account daily.

On one occasion, Chan sent Lai a photo with a group of people including Henry Tang, a local delegate of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, supporting the introduction of the national security legislation, along with a message that read “Hong Kong traitors, sanctions list?”.

According to messages shown in court, Lai said he later tweeted the photo with the caption reading “Should [the] US government put them on the sanctions list?”.

Chan is among one of six former senior Apple Daily staff who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit collusion.

Lai has denied three conspiracy charges relating to collusion with foreign forces and sedition.

The trial continues on Thursday.