Lai, 78, was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year under the Beijing-imposed national security law and a colonial-era law.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he would speak to Chinese leader Xi Jinping about releasing Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai during his upcoming visit to China.
“Hong Kong was not as easy. But I will be bringing him up,” Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt when asked whether he would raise Lai’s case directly with Xi when they sit down in Beijing next week.
The president mentioned that he had previously discussed Lai’s case with Xi during their October 2025 meeting in South Korea.
“I brought him up,” Trump said in the interview, which aired on May 4. “There’s a little bitterness, I would say, with him and Jimmy Lai. ”
Trump has said that he will visit China from May 14 to 15, though Beijing has yet to confirm the dates.
Lai’s children have called Trump’s visit a crucial opportunity for their 78-year-old father’s freedom, as the former publisher’s health has deteriorated after prolonged solitary confinement.
A vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Lai has been kept behind bars for more than five years in Hong Kong. He is one of the first pro-democracy advocates arrested under the draconian national security law, which Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in June 2020 following months of pro-democracy protests.
Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was convicted in December 2025 of two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under the Beijing-imposed national security law and a third count of “sedition” under a colonial-era law. Lai had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Speaking to reporters after Lai’s verdict, Trump said he felt “so badly” and had asked Xi to consider freeing the former media entrepreneur.
“I asked to consider his release,” Trump said at a briefing in December. “He’s not well. He’s an older man, and he’s not well. So I did put that request out.”
In February, Hong Kong’s High Court handed down a 20-year prison term to Lai.
The lengthy jail term has reignited global concerns about Beijing’s assault on the city’s dwindling freedoms of speech and the press, which the CCP promised to keep untouched for half a century when the UK handed the city over to the Chinese regime in 1997.
By Dorothy Li
