Trump to press Xi Jinping for release of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai

By Kate Queram

 

US President Donald Trump said he would use an upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to push for the release of Jimmy Lai, after a group of US lawmakers urged him to appeal for the Hong Kong media mogul’s release. 

“I have a lot of respect for Rick Scott and a lot of them that are asking me to do that, and it’s on my list I’m going to ask,” Trump said Friday as he departed Washington for his trip to Asia. 

More than 30 lawmakers signed a letter headed by Scott, a US senator from Florida, asking Trump to raise the issue of Lai, noting that Lai is suffering from deteriorating health.

 

“Time is not on his side—he must be released immediately,” the lawmakers wrote. “The humanitarian case for Mr. Lai’s release is stronger and more dire than ever, which is why this must be addressed at the highest possible level.”

 

Trump has previously said he would “do everything I can” to free Lai, the former owner of Apple Daily. The outlet was harshly critical of Beijing and backed pro-democracy protests in the city in 2014 and 2019. The Chinese government has previously expressed stern opposition to any action seen as interfering in the country’s affairs.

 

Lai, a British citizen, has been detained since 2020 and accused under Beijing’s national security law of a conspiracy to incite foreign, including American, sanctions against Hong Kong and China. Lai denies those charges.

 

“Jimmy Lai and President Xi are big enemies, but it’s been a long time,” Trump said.

 

Lai’s case joins an already extensive agenda for the talk. 

 

Trump has said he wants to extend a pause on higher tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Xi resuming American soybean purchases, cracking down on fentanyl and backing off restrictions on rare-earth exports. The US president has also floated an elusive agreement on nuclear weapons and expressed a desire to convince Xi to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine.

 

Speaking later aboard Air Force One, Trump said he expected that both sides would make concessions in the talks but declined to put odds on an agreement that would avert the US from implementing sweeping additional tariffs on Chinese products. 

 

He added that he believed Xi also wanted to end the war in Ukraine, and said that the leaders would also discuss artificial intelligence — though he did not say if the US would be open to curbing its export controls on advanced chips.

 

“They have to make concessions. I guess we would too. We’re at 157% tariff for them. I don’t think that’s sustainable for them, and they want to get that down, and we want certain things from them,” Trump said.

 

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng began talks in Malaysia on Saturday morning local time as Trump departed to set the stage for the coming Xi-Trump meeting, which the White House has said will occur Thursday in South Korea.