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Catholic media mogul Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, leaves the Court of Final Appeal by prison van in Hong Kong Feb. 9, 2021.
OSV News photo/Tyrone Siu, Reuters
May 12, 2026
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Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump said May 11 he plans to discuss the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai during his upcoming visit to China; however, he suggested the prominent Catholic and pro-democracy campaigner "caused a lot of bedlam."
Lai, Hong Kong’s prominent Catholic media tycoon was convicted of national security offenses under the city’s controversial national security law. U.S. officials, including Trump, have cast the charges leading to Lai's conviction as fabricated, arguing that they were evidence that the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to silence dissent.
"I'll bring them both up," Trump told reporters, also in reference to the arrest of Ezra Jin Mingri, founder and pastor of Zion Church, another political prisoner whose case has provoked grave religious freedom concerns from U.S. officials.
Trump said they were seeking the release of "people that are really innocent people, and they're being held captive."
But then Trump seemed to suggest Lai had been a nuisance to the Chinese regime and that he "caused a lot of bedlam."
"But Jimmy Lai, it caused lots of turmoil for China," Trump continued. "He tried to do the right thing. He wasn't successful. Went to jail, and people would like him out. And I'd like to see him get out, too. So I'll bring him up again. I have brought him up."
Lai, who founded the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, protested in favour of democratic freedoms — such as freedom of the press and expression — in Hong Kong, which was designated a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997, with the end of the region's British rule. Following pro-democracy protests in 2019, China implemented a purported national security law the next year, which critics have said has been used to silence the Chinese Communist Party’s critics.
Under that law, Lai was arrested in August 2020 and has been imprisoned since that December. He pleaded not guilty to the charges before his Dec. 15 conviction. On Feb. 9, the 78-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Trump was to arrive in Beijing May 13.
(Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington.)
A version of this story appeared in the May 17, 2026, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "Trump says he will raise Jimmy Lai imprisonment with Chinese officials".
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