With this week’s meeting with Xi Jinping, Trump can turn a campaign promise into action.
With this week’s meeting with Xi Jinping, Trump can turn a campaign promise into action.
W hen President Trump travels to Beijing this week to meet with Xi Jinping, he will have a rare opportunity to secure the freedom of one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners: Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai. Despite years of efforts by U.S. officials and members of Congress, no one has yet been able to secure Lai’s release. President Trump could deliver a win for American diplomacy and the cause of free expression in China.
Jimmy Lai is one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy voices. As the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily, he built a leading independent newspaper and used it to defend press freedom. Lai was first arrested in August 2020 following Beijing’s imposition of the National Security Law, and again in December 2020. In February 2026, he was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison and remains behind bars after more than five years in detention, almost entirely in solitary confinement.
Lai’s case has drawn overwhelming bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. His prosecution under the National Security Law reflects a broader effort by Beijing to criminalize peaceful dissent and engagement with the United States. In Lai’s case, contacts with American lawmakers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, were cited as evidence against him, turning ordinary international relationships into acts of “collusion.” His detention sends a chilling message: Standing for freedom, and even engaging with Americans, comes at a cost.
Many of us advocating for Lai’s release were heartened by President Trump’s public commitment to secure his freedom. During his campaign for the presidency, he pledged to raise Lai’s case directly with Xi Jinping and expressed concern in recent months about Lai’s age and declining health. Now, with a face-to-face meeting in Beijing, he can turn those words into action.
This is an urgent moment. After more than 1,000 days in solitary confinement — conditions that constitute torture even under Hong Kong’s own legal standards — Lai’s health is deteriorating, and he is being deprived of access to sufficient treatment. He has lost a significant amount of weight and faces recurring infections, with little access to fresh air or sunlight. Authorities have gone to extraordinary lengths to enforce his isolation, reportedly ensuring that no other inmates are housed on his floor and emptying the cells above and below him to prevent even incidental human contact. Even his meetings with legal counsel are surveilled. At 78, his continued imprisonment increasingly amounts to a death sentence.
China’s continued refusal to release Lai, despite repeated appeals from the United States and its allies, underscores how much political value Beijing places on his detention. But that calculation comes at a cost. The longer Lai remains behind bars, the clearer the signal to American businesses and citizens that Hong Kong is no longer a safe or predictable place to operate.
Jimmy Lai is by no means the only victim of Beijing’s repression. China continues to detain thousands of political prisoners, including religious figures such as Pastor Ezra Jin, target faith communities, repress ethnic minorities, and deploy pervasive digital surveillance to control its people. It is also the world’s leading perpetrator of transnational repression, extending its reach far beyond its borders. Unsurprisingly, China receives a score of just nine out of 100 in Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report.
President Trump has emphasized strength, leverage, and results in foreign policy. Securing Jimmy Lai’s release would embody all three. It would be a powerful demonstration that American leadership delivers. It could also crack open the door for the release of other political prisoners.
President Trump took the first step in raising Jimmy Lai’s case. Now is the moment to finish the job and return home with Jimmy Lai.
Jamie Fly is the CEO of Freedom House. Katie LaRoque is the director of policy and advocacy for Freedom House. Freedom House will award Jimmy Lai with its Freedom Award on May 20.