U.S. President to advocate for Lai’s release during his trip to China this week
Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, looks on as he leaves the Court of Final Appeal by prison van in Hong Kong on Feb. 1, 2021.says he plans to bring up the case of jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai with the Chinese authorities when he travels to this week to meet President Xi Jinping.
Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he would like to see the 78-year-old businessman, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong earlier this year, released, along with a Christian pastor who has also been incarcerated. Mr. Lai, who founded the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong, was a prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party before his arrest in 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law.
His arrest was part of a wider crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong, a former British colony that was known for press freedom.from May 13 to 15. He has already raised Mr. Lai’s case with the Chinese authorities and said he would do so again when he is in the country.
He said the U.S. has been “getting hundreds of people out of confinement and prisons that shouldn’t be there ... and many of them aren’t even citizens of the United States. ” Mr. Trump said Mr. Lai had “caused lots of turmoil” in China and went to jail, but that he’d “like to see him get out ... so I’ll bring him up again.
” He said he would also like to see a pastor who has family in the U.S. released, and would “bring his name up” to authorities. Mr. Trump didn’t specify the identity of the pastor to reporters, but he is believed to be Ezra Jin. Ezra Jin is a Christian pastor with children who are U.S. citizens, and was arrested last year as part of a Chinese crackdown on religious institutions.
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30, 2025. The imprisonment of Mr. Lai, a long-time pro-democracy activist and critic of Beijing, has been widely criticized by Western governments, including Britain, as well as press freedom organizations and human rights groups.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has said publicly, when asked by reporters, that he would also like to see Mr. Lai, a British national, released on humanitarian grounds. He has not said if he raised his case personally during his visit to Beijing in January. In February, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on social media that Canada is disappointed by the sentencing of Mr. Lai to 20 years in prison, also urging his immediate release on humanitarian grounds.
Rob Oliphant, parliamentary secretary to Ms. Anand, said last week at the Commons foreign affairs committee that the government had raised Mr. Lai’s case “at the highest levels. ” “We have raised it many times and we have raised it at the highest levels internationally, bilaterally,” Mr. Oliphant said. Mr. Lai has diabetes and had been in solitary confinement for more than five years when he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
His international legal team said it was tantamount to a life sentence for the 78-year-old. Political parties of all stripes in “every G7 country” want Mr. Lai’s freedom “because the quality of our own freedoms depend on it,” said Brandon Silver, a member of Mr. Lai’s international legal team and director of policy and projects at the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
“I hope we will see him returned to his family before it is too late,” he said in a text message on Monday. The businessman used to visit Canada regularly and has close family in Ontario, and extensive business investments in the Niagara region, including a string of hotels. Mr. Lai’s twin sister lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher, who leads Mr. Lai’s international legal team, said Jimmy Lai “has spent five-and-a-half hellish years in solitary confinement as a prisoner of conscience and has been sentenced to 20 more. ” “It’s long past time we bring this heroic man home to his family, where he can live out his days in peace. We are encouraged by President Trump’s commitment to freeing Mr. Lai,” she said in a statement.
“His family is confident that the President can bring him home. ”
Please follow us on Google to support us Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Trump Administration Dismantling Legal Pathways for Immigrants, Suspected Targeting of Naturalized US CitizensThe Trump administration is accused of dismantling legal pathways for immigrants to reside and work in the US permanently, including pausing legal permanent residency and naturalization applications. The administration also suspects targeting of naturalized US citizens, aiming to remove their citizenship.
Read more »
Trump Promotes Claim He Has A 'Better Understanding' Of The Bible Than Pope LeoAs an overnight trends reporter at HuffPost, Ben Blanchet covers a range of stories on politics, media, entertainment and more. Prior to his time here, his work was featured in the New York Post, Insider and The Buffalo News’ Sun newspapers.
Read more »
TRUMP memecoin team moves 4.9mln tokens – Can $2.3 still hold?Trump Team Allocation wallet transferred 4.915 million TRUMP worth $12.09 million and sold 7 million TRUMP worth $17.22 million.
Read more »
Jimmy Kimmel Has A Sweet Tribute For Stephen Colbert On His Final NightAs an overnight trends reporter at HuffPost, Ben Blanchet covers a range of stories on politics, media, entertainment and more. Prior to his time here, his work was featured in the New York Post, Insider and The Buffalo News’ Sun newspapers.
Read more »