Jimmy Lai was jailed for 20 years in February after being found guilty of national security charges for his support of anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019.ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump departed Beijing Friday without any public mention of jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, after he promised to bring up the British citizen’s case with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Mr. Lai was jailed for 20 years in February after being found guilty of national security charges for his support of anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019. The following month, Mr. Lai waived his right to appeal as his family lobbies for the 78-year-old to receive compassionate release on health grounds.
While British and Canadian politicians have called for China to show leniency to Mr. Lai, supporters have long felt his best bet lies with Mr. Trump. Mr. Lai’s friends in Washington, including many high-level members of the Republican Party, have urged the U.S. President to push for his release.
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“President Trump has mentioned his commitment to freeing my father a number of times,” Mr. Lai’s daughter Claire told a U.S. broadcaster this week. “Of course I know it’s not an easy task, but I believe if anyone can do it, President Trump can.”
Speaking ahead of his departure for Beijing, Mr. Trump said he had raised Mr. Lai’s case with Mr. Xi in the past, but seemed skeptical of his chances.
“Jimmy Lai, you know, caused a lot of bedlam,” he told reporters. “It’s like saying to me, if [former FBI director James] Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out? It might be a hard one for me.”
Mr. Lai, he added, “tried to do the right thing, he wasn’t successful, went to jail, and people would like him out, and I’d like to see him get out, too, so I’ll bring him up again.”
Speaking to Fox News after Mr. Trump landed in Beijing, Mr. Lai’s son Sebastien praised the U.S. President as an “incredible negotiator” and said “the dream is to see him with my father on Air Force One.”
There is some precedent for such actions: During a visit by then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton to China in 2012, activist Chen Guangcheng fled house arrest and sought asylum in the U.S. Embassy. Washington eventually negotiated for him to leave China.
Similarly, when asked about Mr. Lai’s case earlier this week, Mr. Trump touted his success in securing the release of various U.S. citizens detained around the world.
But when the presidential jet departed China Friday, it was without Mr. Lai, and what Mr. Trump said to Mr. Xi about the Apple Daily publisher remains unclear. There was no mention of Mr. Lai in any White House summary of the meetings, nor did Mr. Trump mention him in his social-media posts or a handful of interviews he gave.
Speaking to NBC, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Mr. Trump “always raises that case and a couple others, and obviously we’ll hope to get a positive response from that.”
“We’d be open to any arrangement that would work for them, as long as he’s given his freedom,” Mr. Rubio said.
Asked about Mr. Lai’s case at a regular press conference on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing’s position on the matter was clear.
“Jimmy Lai was a major mastermind and participant in activities that undermined national security and disrupted Hong Kong,” he said. “Hong Kong affairs fall within China’s internal affairs, and the Central People’s Government firmly supports Hong Kong’s judicial organs in performing their duties in accordance with the law.”
With reports from Alexandra Li in Beijing