President Donald Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping is hesitant to release imprisoned Christian Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy newspaper publisher.
Trump told reporters he spoke with Xi during the Beijing state visit about imprisoned Christian Pastor Ezra Jin and said Xi was “giving very serious consideration” to his release.
Jin, the pastor of Zion Church, which was founded in Beijing, was detained in November 2025. He is one of 18 members of the church who are currently imprisoned in China, his daughter said.
But the president expressed less confidence about the release of Lai.
“I discussed Jimmy,” Trump said. “It’s a tougher one. I did bring it up. It’s a tough one. For him it’s a tougher one.”
Jimmy Lai is a Hong Kong businessman who founded the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.
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“[Xi] told me, and I don’t want to mislead anybody,” Trump said. “He said Jimmy Lai is a tough one for him. He went through a lot, right or wrong, went through a lot. So, he told me that would be a tough one. He said he’s going to strongly consider the pastor.”
In February, 78-year-old Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison, meaning he will probably die in jail if he is not released. He was convicted in December on two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious materials.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has condemned Lai’s sentence.
“The Hong Kong High Court’s decision to sentence Jimmy Lai to 20 years is an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case,” Rubio said in a statement.
“It shows the world that Beijing will go to extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, casting aside the international commitments Beijing made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration,” he added.
Rubio also urged authorities to grant Lai humanitarian parole, arguing that Lai and his family “have suffered enough.”
Leading up to Trump’s visit to Beijing, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., led 105 members of Congress in penning a letter urging Trump to fight for “Jimmy Lai’s full and unconditional release when meeting with President Xi at the upcoming summit.”
Scott praised Trump for “doing everything he can to get Jimmy Lai free.”
“Sometimes doing the right things means having to negotiate with an absolutely despicable dictator like Xi,” Scott told The Daily Signal. “Jimmy is 78, diabetic, and is suffering in solitary confinement only because he believes in freedom. We can’t give up. I’m going to keep fighting for Jimmy’s release no matter what it takes.”
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