Ahead of his summit with Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing later this month, Donald Trump is once again facing calls to push for the release of Jimmy Lai (黎智英), the media mogul and pro-democracy activist who was sentenced to 20 years in a Hong Kong prison earlier this year.
Trump himself has repeatedly called for Lai’s release. In an interview during the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said that it would be “very easy” to free Lai. He then pressed Xi directly on the topic during their meeting in Busan, South Korea last October. And this Monday, when Trump was asked about Lai during an appearance on Hugh Hewitt’s conservative talk radio show, he responded: “I will be bringing it up.”
Members of Congress in the U.S. have since joined the push. Last month, a bipartisan group of senators led by Dick Durbin of Illinois and Ted Cruz of Texas introduced a resolution urging Trump to prioritize calling for the release of Chinese political prisoners, including Lai, in any future meetings with Xi.
That move followed a resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in December last year calling on China to “immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai and all other Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates unjustly imprisoned.”
Lai, 78, made his fortune in the clothing industry in Hong Kong starting in the 1980s before founding the Apple Daily newspaper in 1995. Lai was arrested on national security charges in 2020, during the fallout from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, for which Apple Daily had become a central voice.
Hong Kong police raided the company’s offices later that same day, and the company was soon forced to shutter. Last month, Hong Kong’s High Court continued its assault on Lai’s property, moving to seize more than $16 million in assets that remain in the city, including bank accounts and private companies linked to Lai.
Last Thursday, the German state-funded television network Deutsche Welle awarded Lai with its Freedom of Speech Award.
“Jimmy Lai has stood unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk, even as space for independent journalism became increasingly limited,” Deutsche Welle director general Barbara Massing said in a statement. “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in Hong Kong. His commitment reminds us that press freedom is never a given — it must be constantly defended.”
Also on Thursday, Reporters Without Borders announced its latest global press freedom index, which saw Hong Kong stuck at 140th place out of 180 countries and territories, just ahead of Syria and just behind Rwanda.
“In Hong Kong, a draconian national security law has allowed the authorities to imprison independent publisher Jimmy Lai, who was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison, the heaviest ever imposed on a journalist in the territory,” the organization noted.
Lai’s rapidly deteriorating health represents both the greatest threat that he poses to Beijing, as well as the simplest rationale for granting his release. Lai has spent nearly 2,000 days in solitary confinement, and there are reports that his teeth are rotting.
If Lai were a young activist with a long future ahead of him, then Beijing might have reason to fear what he might do once released from prison. But in his current state, Lai poses no threat to the regime. Upon release, Lai would quietly leave Hong Kong to be with his family.
Behind bars, however, Lai’s advanced age and ill health makes him a greater threat to Xi. If he dies in prison, it would only draw more attention to China’s crackdown on Hong Kong, while intensifying the quiet admiration that many of the more politically conscious Chinese citizens undoubtedly hold for Lai.
At their summit later this month, both Trump and Xi will be eager to show that their meeting was worth it. Freeing Lai would be a victory both could claim for no cost at all.
Leave a Reply