Administration

Jimmy Lai’s daughter praises Trump for mentioning imprisoned father to Xi

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by Ryan Mancini - 05/16/26 10:06 AM ET

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by Ryan Mancini - 05/16/26 10:06 AM ET

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Claire Lai, the daughter of imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai, on Friday praised President Trump for mentioning her father during his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.

The younger Lai told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas that she and her family do not know the details of the conversation between Trump and Xi — but she wanted “to stress how grateful I am and we are [to] President Trump and his administration.”

“He truly is a man of his words,” Claire Lai said. “This is the second time that he has brought up my father directly with President Xi and, you know, it’s –– he has shown a continuous commitment to freeing my father and we are just so endlessly grateful, endlessly grateful for it.”

A panel of judges convicted Jimmy Lai, 78, in December on two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious materials. The case and trial were one of the country’s most high-profile examples of the government’s crackdown on dissenters in Hong Kong.

He was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison, the longest punishment given so far under China’s national security law. The businessman and pro-democracy activist has already spent more than five years in prison.

Jimmy Lai’s family and lawyer have argued that the media tycoon is in his “advanced years” and suffers from hypertension, diabetes and other ailments.

Bipartisan members of Congress called on Trump to pressure Xi about the journalist ahead of his diplomatic trip to Beijing. Trump said he would bring up Lai and imprisoned Christian pastor Ezra Jin to Xi.

The House on Wednesday also passed a resolution urging Trump to secure the release of Lai, Jin, Pastor Gao Quanfu and his wife Pang Yu, and Uyghur American activist Dr. Gulshan Abbas. Sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the bill unanimously passed by a vote of 414-0.

The resolution urges the president to “seek verifiable proof of life and access to independent legal counsel, family communication, and medical care for such detainees.”

The Trump administration has previously criticized Lai’s detention, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it a “tragic conclusion.”

“It shows the world that Beijing will go to extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, casting aside the international commitments Beijing made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration,” Rubio said in a statement at the time.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has also called for Lai’s release, as he is a British citizen. She said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had raised the media mogul’s case directly with Xi during their meeting in January.

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