Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday said he would bring Claire Lai, the daughter of an imprisoned Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul, to the State of the Union address at the Capitol.
Ms. Lai’s father, Jimmy Lai, has been blamed by Beijing for masterminding the city’s major protests nearly seven years ago. Her appearance is meant to underscore that “America is determined to secure Jimmy’s release,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement that praised her “extraordinary courage.”
“Jimmy Lai has devoted his career to championing democracy in Hong Kong, steadfastly fighting for the freedoms we too often take for granted in America,” Mr. Johnson said. “Today, however, he sits in a Chinese prison cell for simply defending free speech and speaking out against the totalitarian repression of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Mr. Lai, 78, was sentenced this month to 20 years in prison, the heaviest penalty ever handed down for a national security offense in Hong Kong.
It was the culmination of a yearslong campaign by Beijing to kneecap the outspoken media tycoon over Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. Mr. Lai was found guilty of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” that stemmed from meetings he had held with politicians in the United States.
Ms. Lai called the punishment “heartbreakingly cruel.”
“If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars,” she said after her father’s sentencing.
Mr. Johnson’s decision to elevate Mr. Lai’s case comes ahead of President Trump’s planned trip to Beijing in April, a trip Ms. Lai and her brother have said could be “crucial” to securing their father’s release. Mr. Trump has said he asked China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to consider releasing Mr. Lai, and promised during his second presidential campaign: “One hundred percent I’ll get him out.”
Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, helped organize Ms. Lai’s visit.
“She and her brother, Sebastien — who testified at a 2023 congressional hearing I chaired on Jimmy Lai — have been absolutely amazing in their past and ongoing appeal to Xi Jinping to release their dad,” Mr. Smith said. “They love and respect their father so much, which further inspires us all to act — including President Trump, who has raised Jimmy Lai’s unjust incarceration numerous times.”
Mr. Johnson had called for Mr. Lai’s release in remarks he gave to the British Parliament in January.
“History teaches us we can never go down the road of censoring and silencing unpopular opinions because liberty is kept alive in the free marketplace of ideas,” he said. “History further teaches us that the best solution to the problem of free speech is always more speech. And those being unjustly persecuted for exercising those freedoms such as Jimmy Lai, the British national being held in Hong Kong, must be defended.”
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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