By Michael Martina
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hopes for the release of detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai are higher following U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to office, Lai’s son said on Tuesday in Washington, where he and advocates plan to meet Trump administration officials.
Lai, the founder of the Apple Daily newspaper that was forced to close after a police raid and asset freeze in June 2021, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
China-imposed national security legislation in Hong Kong has been used to jail pro-democracy activists after violent street protests there in 2019. The United States and other foreign governments have criticized the law as a tool for authorities to clamp down on dissent.
Lai’s case is a source of friction between Washington and Beijing, with Trump having said last year during his campaign for the presidency that he would “100%” get Lai out of China.
Sebastien Lai told reporters that even as his father’s health declines in harsh, solitary confinement in Hong Kong, the pro-democracy advocate is still fighting for his beliefs at 77.
“President Trump was the first president of the United States that mentioned my father by name,” Lai told reporters in Washington, adding that his father’s cause had always received bipartisan support in the U.S.
“The short of it is, yes, we’re a lot more hopeful,” he said, when asked if his confidence had grown with Trump in the White House.
He said Lai’s advocates had already met this week with State Department officials, and would meet with officials at the White House National Security Council.
The White House and State Department did not respond immediately to Reuters questions about the meetings.
China has described the claims about Lai’s health as slanderous. China’s embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)
