Ahead of President Donald Trump’s trip to China next week, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers — including about two-thirds of the Senate — is urging him to seek the release of publisher Jimmy Lai, an ardent critic of the Chinese Communist Party who has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since 2020.
In a letter Thursday, more than 100 lawmakers asked Trump to raise Lai’s case with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week and ask for his freedom. Trump pledged during his 2024 campaign to secure the release of Lai, a British citizen who has become a symbol of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, but has yet to do so.
“Your direct engagement is critical to securing Mr. Lai’s immediate release on humanitarian parole, so he can receive appropriate medical care and reunite with his family,” the lawmakers wrote in the Republican-led letter, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post.
The letter was signed by 68 senators, including more than 40 Republicans. It was also signed by more than 35 House members, including more than 25 Republicans. Among the signatories were Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), as well as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California).
The request adds to an already crowded agenda for Trump in China, with tensions related to Iran hanging over the trip and pressure high for the president to produce results on trade, Taiwan and artificial intelligence. It also comes as Trump has moved away from the human rights campaign that defined parts of his first term’s China policy, recently focusing instead on narrower economic and strategic deals with Beijing.
For Lai, the summit in Beijing may represent a small moment of opportunity. In February, the 78-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty in December of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and sedition. Lai denies the charges, which the U.S. government has also said are politically motivated. Lai’s international legal team has said that the publisher’s best hope for freedom is through a diplomatic deal brokered by the U.S. and British governments.
A successful entrepreneur who founded the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, Lai has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since late 2020, the same year that Beijing’s national security law was imposed in the city. Among other things, prosecutors alleged that Lai used Apple Daily to ask the United States and other countries to penalize Hong Kong and Chinese officials as punishment for cracking down on Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests.
“Now is a key time to re-emphasize the case, not only given Mr. Lai’s age and health, but also because this will be the first time you are meeting with Xi Jinping since the Hong Kong legal proceedings against Mr. Lai came to an end,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Trump.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he would “100 percent” be able to secure Lai’s release if he returned to the White House. “He’ll be easy to get out,” Trump said at the time.
On Monday, Trump said he would mention Lai’s case during the China summit.
“I will be bringing it up,” Trump told conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt on his radio show.
The president said he previously raised Lai’s case with Xi in South Korea last October. “There’s a little bitterness, I would say, with him and Jimmy Lai. Hong Kong was not as easy,” Trump said Monday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday on the letter.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) spearheaded the letter.
“Jimmy Lai is a dear friend, and his immediate release is dire,” Scott said in a statement.
“What they’re doing to Jimmy goes against everything we believe as Americans. I’m glad President Trump has committed to bring up his release when he next meets with Xi,” Scott added. “I am hopeful that President Trump will get this done.”
Even as the Trump administration targets the news media in the United States, Lai is continuing to receive bipartisan support from Congress.
“Jimmy Lai is a hero,” signatory Rep. Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) said in a statement. “His crime? Practicing freedom of expression.” Smith added, “President Trump has an incredible, rare opportunity to speak to Xi, face-to-face, man-to-man, and personally ask him to release Jimmy Lai.”
Lai’s daughter Claire said she was “deeply grateful” to the lawmakers for speaking up on her father’s behalf. “He does not have the luxury of time,” she said in a statement. Claire added that she hopes Trump “will help President Xi see the wisdom of releasing my father so that he can spend his twilight years with his family.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who as a senator was a staunch critic of China’s human rights record and is expected to join next week’s trip, said Wednesday that the United States “always” raises human rights issues in “appropriate forums,” when asked whether the U.S. would discuss rights issues during the talks.
During the first Trump administration, the State Department declared that the Chinese government was perpetrating genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang. Beijing denies wrongdoing in the region. In 2019, Lai visited Washington and met with then-Vice President Mike Pence, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pelosi, then the House speaker.
During Trump’s second term, the president has focused on trade and tariffs with China while broadly refraining from commenting on human rights issues in China. His administration — via the Elon Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service — has also sought to unwind much of the comprehensive monitoring and funding network that was responsible for exposing Chinese rights violations.
The Trump administration brokered an agreement in September for the release of an Atlanta-based Wells Fargo executive who was held in China for several months under an exit ban. But Lai’s case represents a more challenging task. Overturning the conviction of the ailing media tycoon would mark a major concession by Beijing, which has long defended its crackdown in Hong Kong as necessary for stability.
Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 40 shipping firms and vessels, plus a Chinese oil refinery, in a growing crackdown on maritime business with Iran. Most of the sanctioned vessels are either Chinese-linked operations or have a record of delivering crude oil to China as their final destination.
Trump’s China trip was initially scheduled for March, but it was delayed due to the war in Iran. The summit is now set for May 14 and 15.
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