Donald Trump said he raised the case of jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai with 
Xi Jinping during their Beijing summit but was told it "is a tough one," signaling that the 78-year-old's release is unlikely. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the flight home, Trump said: "I did bring him up, it's a tougher one for him," adding that Xi told him "Jimmy Lai is a tough one for him to do." In a later Fox News interview, Trump said the response "was not positive," the Guardian reported.
Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty in December on charges of foreign collusion and seditious publication and sentenced to 20 years in prison, the harshest penalty handed down so far under the national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong after the 2019 protests, the CNA reported. Family and supporters of the British citizen had hoped the visit could help secure his release; his daughter Claire said she remained grateful for the attention to her father's case and called it an opportunity for Beijing to act, the Guardian reported.
Trump said Xi would "strongly consider" the release of Jin Mingri, founder of the unregistered Zion Church detained in October during a wider crackdown, drawing a contrast with the firmer position on Lai. Eric Lai of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law told HKFP that while the case was clearly not a summit priority, international attention remained essential to keeping it on the US agenda.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump, Xi Jinping. — JudgeMarket.
