US president Donald Trump has offered China “any arrangement” to secure the freedom of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai during his visit to Beijing, secretary of state Marco Rubio said.
Ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, Mr Trump had said he would raise Mr Lai’s imprisonment in Hong Kong and the arrest of pastor Jin Mingri of Zion Church in the mainland.
“The president always raises that case and a couple others, and obviously we’ll hope to get a positive response from that,” Mr Rubio on Thursday told NBC News. “We’d be open to any arrangement that would work for them, as long as he’s given his freedom,” he said of Mr Lai.
The 78-year-old founder of Apple Daily, which was Hong Kong’s most vocal pro-democracy newspaper before being shuttered due to state pressure, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February on disputed collusion and sedition charges. The British citizen has denied any wrongdoing.
He has reportedly been kept in solitary confinement since his December 2020 arrest, despite mounting concerns for his deteriorating physical health.
Mr Lai was awarded the maximum prison sentence under Beijing’s national security law and is likely to die in prison without intervention.
Mr Trump had also pledged during his 2024 campaign to secure his release. The US president said he brought up Mr Lai’s case when he last met President Xi in October and vowed to do so again during an interview with the conservative Christian news network Salem News Channel on Monday.
Mr Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, earlier this week said he “held hope” that Hong Kong would “act rationally and release my father” if the US president presses the issue during meetings with Mr Xi.
Sebastien Lai lauded Mr Trump’s record as “an incredible negotiator” and “one of the best deal makers” in his appeal.
“That’s why we have so much hope on his visit,” he said. “This is a case he genuinely, from my understanding, cares about and he’s someone who’s an incredible negotiator. So hopefully I’ll get to see my father again.”
He separately urged the British government to make his father’s release a precondition for resetting relationships with Beijing, lamenting that “had the government done more three, four years ago, who knows?”
He separately told ABC News: “I honestly don’t know how much time he has left in these absolutely horrible conditions … I pray that the president is successful in getting him out.”
