US president Donald Trump has said he will raise the issue of Hong Kong’s jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai during a summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping later this month.
Mr Trump is due to travel to Beijing for a long-awaited summit on 14 and 15 May, an appointment that has already been delayed once by the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
That conflict is among the matters expected to be discussed, as well as broader issues of US-China trade and sticking points such as the fate of the disputed island of Taiwan.
Mr Trump said he brought up Mr Lai’s case when he last met President Xi in October and, during an interview with the conservative Christian news network Salem News Channel on Monday, he vowed to do so again.
Mr Lai, a British citizen and devout Catholic, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for collusion and sedition charges in February this year after a lengthy trial process, a verdict that was met with widespread international criticism. The founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper has been in jail since he was first arrested in December 2020.
Asked about Mr Lai’s case by conservative political commentator Hugh Hewitt, Mr Trump said: “I will be bringing it up [in China].”
“I brought him (Lai) up,” Mr Trump added, referring to his meeting with Mr Xi in South Korea in October. “There’s a little bitterness, I would say, with him and Jimmy Lai. Hong Kong was not as easy.”
Mr Lai’s 20-year sentence – the maximum penalty under Beijing’s national security law – means the 78-year-old is likely to die in jail, even without the grave concerns from his family and supporters about his ill health.
Mr Trump, who promised to “100 per cent get him out” of jail during his election campaign for a second term, previously said he had asked Mr Xi to “consider” releasing Mr Lai.
“I feel so badly,” the president told reporters in December last year, shortly after Mr Lai was convicted. “I spoke to President Xi about it and I asked to consider his release.”
“He’s an older man and he’s not well. So I did put that request out. We’ll see what happens.”
Just two months after Mr Trump made those remarks, the court in Hong Kong sentenced Mr Lai in a case that was seen as a barometer of press freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which became an autonomous territory for 50 years in 1997 after the UK relinquished its colonial rule.
Last week, Mr Lai was announced as the winner of a freedom of speech award by Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), in recognition of his contributions to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
The award will be presented in absentia on 23 June at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn, with the DW panel praising him for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk”.
In a strongly worded rebuttal, the Hong Kong government said the “so-called award” given by an “anti-China organisation and foreign media” was politically motivated and part of foreign attempts to defend Mr Lai.
The Hong Kong government also criticised Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for once again ranking the city 140th out of 180 countries and territories in its 2026 Press Freedom Index. RSF noted that the city had slid 122 places down its rankings since the first index was published 25 years ago.
Hong Kong remains on the list’s “red zone”, which reflects a “very serious” threat to press freedom. It is placed between Rwanda and Syria on the index.
Mr Lai founded Apple Daily in 1995, ahead of 1997 handover, under which China pledged to uphold “one country, two systems” for 50 years. The newspaper aimed to defend freedom of expression in the territory and was openly critical of the Chinese government.
Initially a local tabloid known for sensational headlines and paparazzi-style coverage, it later took on a more overt political role, becoming a prominent voice critical of Beijing’s growing influence over Hong Kong’s politics and civic freedoms.
Apple Daily was forced to shut down in June 2021 after a police raid and the freezing of its assets, one year after Hong Kong’s sweeping new national security laws were imposed.
South Korea says it could join Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ in Strait of Hormuz
Massive explosion at China fireworks factory kills 26 people
Mid air fuel switch cut-off caused deadly 2022 China plane crash, report finds
New dinosaur species bridges key gap in evolution of colossal plant-eaters
Wu Yize: How the boy with bad technique became world snooker champion
Chinese court rules AI no excuse to fire workers in victory for labour rights
