YUSHU, China — A Tibetan businessman who tried to protect his native language, and spoke to The New York Times about his efforts, defended himself in a Chinese court on Thursday against a criminal charge that his one-man campaign had fanned resistance to Chinese rule.

The one-day trial of the businessman, Tashi Wangchuk, 32, was held in his hometown, Yushu, a heavily Tibetan area in the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai, two years after he was detained by the police.

Mr. Tashi was charged with inciting separatism, which can bring up to 15 years in prison, after appearing in a news report and a video documentary by The Times in 2015. His defense lawyers said the prosecution’s case rested largely on the video, which was shown during the trial.

The trial lasted just a few hours, and the presiding judge told the courtroom that a verdict would be announced at a later, unspecified, date. China’s Communist Party-run courts rarely find defendants not guilty, especially in politically contentious cases.