Donald Trump has said he wants Chinese leader Xi Jinping to release Jimmy Lai as he voiced sadness over the Hong Kong media mogul’s conviction on national security charges.
“I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release,” Trump told reporters on Monday, without specifying when he asked Xi.
“He’s an older man, and he’s not well. So I did put that request out. We’ll see what happens.”
The US president had said before he returned to the White House that he wanted to free Lai, a businessman who launched the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily.
Trump met with Xi in October in South Korea, where he is believed to have raised Lai’s case.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on X shortly after Trump’s remarks that the Hong Kong verdict showed China’s determination to “silence those who seek to protect freedom of speech and other fundamental rights”.
He noted that China promised to uphold a separate system before Britain handed over the financial hub in 1997.
“Reports indicate that Mr Lai’s health has severely deteriorated during more than 1,800 days in prison,” Rubio said in a statement.
“We urge the authorities to bring this ordeal to an end as soon as possible and to release Mr Lai on humanitarian grounds.”
Governments, institutions and rights groups across the world have condemned Lai’s conviction. The British citizen is a devout Catholic, with his case being raised in the US by an ad hoc coalition of democracy and press freedom advocates and Christian activists, who form a key base for Trump.
Lai’s daughter Claire Lai also appealed for his freedom after the conviction, telling the Associated Press that Lai would devote himself to God and his family rather than political activism if he were released.
“He just wants to reunite with his family. He wants to dedicate his life to serving our Lord, and he wants to dedicate the rest of his days to his family. My father is fundamentally not a man who operates on illegal ground.”
Lai, 78 and diabetic, was found guilty on Monday of all three charges in a national security trial and could spend the rest of his life in prison, after already being jailed since his arrest in late 2020.
His conviction is part of a clampdown by China on Hong Kong following mass protests in 2019.
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