US President Donald Trump yesterday asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to release businessman Jimmy Lai, who was convicted of sedition and conspiring with international forces against Chinese national security.
“I have spoken with President Xi about this and asked him to consider releasing (Lai),” the US president said in a press statement.
Trump did not say when he made the request or when he and Xi spoke about it.
“He’s an elderly man and he’s not in good health,” Trump added, stressing that “we’ll see what happens.”
Shortly after Trump’s remarks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the case demonstrated Beijing’s desire to “silence those who seek to protect free speech and other essential rights.”
Rubio also spoke of the “one country, two systems” system adopted by Hong Kong shortly after its handover to China in 1997, after years of British rule.
The system, in theory, allows the city to have a certain degree of autonomy from mainland China in sectors such as the judicial and financial systems. Since the imposition of the national security law in 2020, however, Hong Kong has increasingly aligned itself with the government in Beijing.
Yesterday, Jimmy Lai, 78, was found guilty of crimes of sedition and conspiracy with international forces.
The verdict says Lai, through the Apple Daily newspaper, which he founded in 1995, participated in the 2019 protests against the extradition bill.
Lai has been in prison since 2020 and the newspaper was closed the following year. With his conviction yesterday, the businessman could be sentenced to life in prison.
The businessman’s conviction was criticized by governments and institutions around the world, in addition to raising questions about the independence of Hong Kong’s justice system.
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