(Beijing, 16th) U.S. President Donald Trump said he brought up the release of detained Hong Kong Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai to Chinese President Xi Jinping, but he admitted he did not get a positive response, and the prospects are not optimistic.
According to Central News Agency reports, Trump met with Xi Jinping on the 14th and 15th. Before leaving China, he revealed in an exclusive interview with Fox News in Beijing: "I am not optimistic about this."
Trump said he personally raised the issue of Jimmy Lai to Xi during this visit and said, "If you can release him, I would be very grateful." Jimmy Lai is elderly and may not be in good health.
However, Trump admitted that Xi Jinping's "response was not positive."
Before this Xi-Trump summit, Trump had repeatedly said he would raise Jimmy Lai's case with Xi Jinping.
Jimmy Lai has been detained since 2020. In December last year, a Hong Kong court found him guilty of violating the National Security Law, and in February this year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Jimmy Lai is 78 years old. According to foreign media reports, his case has become a symbol of Beijing's crackdown on Hong Kong dissidents. Beijing describes this well-known long-term critic of the Chinese Communist Party as the "mastermind" behind the months-long democratic protests in Hong Kong in 2019.
Although the request for Jimmy Lai's release did not get a positive response from China, Trump said the situation of another pastor was very optimistic and "is under consideration." Trump was referring to Kim Myungil.
Foreign media reported that Pastor Kim Myungil, head of Zion Church in China, was arrested in his home in Guangxi last October. He has long been a leading figure of China's so-called "house churches," which have long sought to operate outside the government's tightly controlled official church system.