Trump Says He Spoke With Xi About Releasing Jimmy Lai

Reports of Lai’s deteriorating health during his trial triggered calls for his release.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is escorted by the police to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Shelter Cove Clubhouse for evidence collection as part of the ongoing investigations in Hong Kong on Aug. 11, 2020. Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

President Donald Trump said on Dec. 15 that he has spoken to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping about releasing Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai after Lai’s conviction.

“I feel so badly,” Trump said during a press briefing. “I asked to consider his release. He’s not well. He’s an older man, and he’s not well. So I did put that request out. We'll see what happens.”

Lai, founder of the now-closed newspaper Apple Daily, was convicted on Dec. 15 in Hong Kong of two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” and one count of “sedition” for his activism. Lai had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The 78-year-old British national could face life in prison, and his conviction drew a fresh wave of condemnation from the international community.

Meanwhile, the Chinese regime and Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, applauded the guilty verdict.

Lai was among the highest-profile activists charged under Hong Kong’s revised national security law. The law, which now gives Beijing broad powers to target critics of the regime, sparked mass protests in Hong Kong.

Lai was arrested in August 2020 and has remained in detention since he was formally charged in December 2020. He suffers from diabetes, and his family and legal team had reported that he was not receiving adequate medical care, and had been kept in solitary confinement for the past five years, deprived of sunlight and open air.

Reports of Lai’s deteriorating health during his trial triggered calls for his release. The trial lasted 156 days.

Trump has previously said he would push for Lai’s release, including ahead of his bilateral meeting with Xi in South Korea in October.

Hong Kong authorities said a mitigation hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12, 2026, and the sentencing could take place at a later date.

Lai’s attorney, Robert Pang, said they will decide whether to appeal after the sentencing.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged authorities to release Lai “as soon as possible.”

“The guilty verdict in Mr. Lai’s national security case reflects the enforcement of Beijing’s laws to silence those who seek to protect freedom of speech and other fundamental rights—rights that China pledged to uphold in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. Mr. Lai is not alone in facing punishment for defending these rights,” Rubio said in a statement Dec. 15.

Since Hong Kong’s national security law was revised, the territory has seen the loss of an independent judiciary, and pro-democracy legislators have been arrested. On Dec. 14, Hong Kong’s Democratic Party disbanded, marking the formal end of the opposition party whose leaders were arrested after the 2020 revision to the national security law.

In 2021, Beijing overhauled Hong Kong’s electoral system, introducing a pro-Beijing vetting panel that effectively barred candidates who oppose the Chinese Communist Party’s positions. The Democratic Party, as well as other parties in the pro-democracy camp, had been unable to field candidates in Legislative Council elections since then.

Frank Fang, Dorothy Li, and Michael Zhuang contributed to this report.