Will Trump Free Jimmy Lai? The Beijing Summit Could Decide His Fate

Check out our previous articles for a deeper understanding: Here

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A Father Behind Bars, a Summit on the Horizon

Time is running out for Jimmy Lai. The 78-year-old British citizen and former media mogul has been held in a Hong Kong prison since late 2020. Last December, a Hong Kong court found him guilty on all charges under the city's national security law — convicting him of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publishing material designed to undermine the state. His sentence: 20 years.

Now, with U.S. President Donald Trump heading to Beijing for a high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for May 14–15, 2026, Lai's family is holding on to what may be their last realistic hope for his release.

"My father will die in prison if he's not freed," his son Sebastien Lai, 31, told the Associated Press. "The Chinese government would be complicit in killing him."

Who Is Jimmy Lai?

To understand what's at stake, it helps to know who Jimmy Lai is — and why Beijing went after him so hard.

Lai founded Apple Daily, Hong Kong's most widely read pro-democracy tabloid, which became a symbol of independent journalism in a city that once prided itself on freedoms unheard of in mainland China. Known for its sharp criticism of Communist Party leadership, the paper was forced to shut down in 2021 after authorities froze its assets under the national security law.

Lai himself is a devout Catholic and a vocal defender of civil liberties. In the U.S., his case has united an unusual coalition of democracy advocates, press freedom organizations, and Christian activists — a constituency that forms a significant part of Trump's political base.

Trump Has Already Raised the Case — But Results Are Unclear

President Trump has not stayed silent on Lai. After the December verdict, he told reporters: "I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release. He's an older man, and he's not well."

Trump also instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to raise Lai's release during trade talks with Beijing in June 2025. Bessent did so again in a more recent meeting — with Chinese officials acknowledging the request, but offering no commitment, according to Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.

"It is positive that senior Chinese officials have stopped pushing back on the issue," Clifford said — cautious optimism in a case where progress has been painfully slow.

Bloomberg reported that Trump confirmed he would raise Lai's case again at the upcoming Beijing summit, telling radio host Hugh Hewitt: "I will be bringing it up" — adding that there is "a little bitterness, I would say, with him and Jimmy Lai."

Congressional Pressure Mounts

The push for Lai's release is not just coming from the White House. More than 100 members of the U.S. Congress — in a rare, bipartisan show of unity — signed a letter to the White House this week urging Trump to make Lai's release a priority at the Beijing meeting.

Freedom House, the Washington-based democracy watchdog, called the summit a "unique opportunity" for Trump to secure a high-profile diplomatic win. In a public statement, the organization urged Trump to return from Beijing with Lai — and Pastor Ezra Jin, another prominent prisoner held by the CCP — on board Air Force One.

"This tangible outcome would be a powerful and highly visible demonstration of U.S. leadership," the group said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has added his voice as well, saying Lai's conviction shows Beijing's determination to "silence those who seek to protect freedom of speech and other fundamental rights."

Beijing's Answer: This Is an Internal Matter

China has not moved. Beijing's Foreign Ministry has consistently rejected any outside pressure regarding Lai's imprisonment, calling Hong Kong affairs "internal matters" and warning against foreign interference.

In March, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson called Lai "the mastermind behind the riots" that shook Hong Kong in 2019. The Hong Kong government, for its part, insists Lai received a "fair and open trial" and that his case has nothing to do with press freedom.

That framing stands in stark contrast to what independent observers see: a man imprisoned for running a newspaper and meeting foreign diplomats.

The Bigger Picture: China as the World's Top Jailer of Journalists

Lai's case does not stand alone. It is part of a systematic pattern of using detention to silence critical voices — a pattern this publication has reported on previously.

In our earlier article, Dying Behind Bars: China Refuses to Free Gravely Ill Journalist Dong Yuyu, we documented the case of veteran journalist Dong Yuyu — a 64-year-old former senior writer at a state newspaper, who was arrested in 2022 after a lunch meeting with a Japanese diplomat, convicted of espionage, and is now reportedly fighting a suspected lung tumor in a prison hospital. His family, like the Lai family, is looking to the Trump–Xi summit as a last lifeline.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), China holds at least 51 journalists behind bars — more than any other country in the world. Reporters Without Borders puts the number even higher, at 123. Hong Kong itself has dropped to 140th out of 180 countries in global press freedom rankings.

Can Diplomacy Still Work Under Xi?

The track record is mixed. In 2024, U.S. pastor David Lin was freed after nearly two decades in Chinese custody. Washington and Beijing also exchanged several other detainees that year under a bilateral diplomatic agreement — a sign that prisoner releases are possible, if not easy.

But legal experts warn that Xi Jinping's China operates on different logic than its predecessors. Human rights lawyer Jared Genser, who worked on Liu Xiaobo's case — the Chinese Nobel laureate who died in state custody in 2017 — noted that under former President Hu Jintao, China was more sensitive to its international reputation and more open to quiet diplomacy.

"Xi's China emphasizes sovereignty and resisting foreign interference," Genser said. "China knows that by taking a very tough and unrelenting position, most countries in the world are not going to be willing to do more than privately raise a case."

That self-censorship by the international community, he argued, is the single biggest obstacle to freeing political prisoners under Xi.

A Win for Everyone — If It Happens

Thomas Kellogg, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, sees a scenario in which both sides have something to gain. Releasing Lai would allow Beijing to signal it is ready to move forward — nearly six years after imposing its sweeping national security law on Hong Kong. For Trump, it would be a tangible diplomatic win at a moment when the administration could use one.

"If the Trump administration is pushing very hard for Jimmy Lai's release, then we could get a positive outcome," Kellogg said.

But not everyone is optimistic. Wilson Chan of the Pagoda Institute think tank warned that Beijing views Lai as a symbol — and is deliberately keeping that symbol locked away. John Kamm of the Dui Hua Foundation, which advocates for political prisoners, said he sees little indication that the current U.S. administration has made Lai's release a genuine top priority.

"I don't know of anyone in this administration who cares about political prisoners in China," Kamm said — with Secretary of State Rubio as a possible exception.

The Clock Is Ticking

Lai's health has become a central concern. He suffers from heart palpitations and diabetes, and his legal team has reported ongoing medical issues. His son says he fears his father will not survive a full 20-year sentence.

The Hong Kong government insists Lai is in "stable" condition and is in solitary confinement by his own request. His family disputes this characterization entirely.

Sebastien Lai, based in London, keeps in contact with his father through letters. He says his father simply wants to live quietly if freed.

"It's a lose-lose scenario for every single person," he said, describing what it would mean if his father were to die behind bars. "The Chinese government would be complicit in killing him."

Whether Trump brings Lai home — or leaves him behind — may be decided in the next 72 hours.

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Sources:

1. Associated Press – Trump's deal making with Xi next week may determine Hong Kong jailed activist Jimmy Lai's fate: https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-jimmy-lai-trump-xi-d0ebb5b2803acf8d4f550216552e0b29
2. Bloomberg – Trump Says He Will Bring Up Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai in Xi Summit: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-05/trump-says-he-will-bring-up-hong-kong-s-jimmy-lai-in-xi-summit
3. Freedom House – What Trump Should Discuss with Xi in Beijing: https://freedomhouse.org/article/freedom-house-experts-what-trump-should-discuss-xi-beijing
4. Al Jazeera – Trump urges China's Xi to free jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/16/trump-urges-chinas-xi-to-free-jailed-hong-kong-media-tycoon-jimmy-lai
5. Hong Kong Free Press – Trump says he asked China's Xi to release Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai: https://hongkongfp.com/2025/12/16/trump-says-has-asked-chinas-xi-to-release-hong-kongs-jimmy-lai/
6. Udumbara.net – Dying Behind Bars: China Refuses to Free Gravely Ill Journalist Dong Yuyu (cross-reference): https://udumbara.net/dying-behind-bars-china-refuses-to-free-gravely-ill-journalist-dong-yuyu

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