Trump says freeing activist Jimmy Lai jailed in China is 'tough'

Donald Trump has said that freeing Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in China, would be "tough".

Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to the US from China that Chinese President Xi Jinping had said releasing 78-year-old Mr Lai "would be a tough one".

The US president also told Fox News the response to him bringing up Mr Lai "was not positive".

"He went through a whole thing and I said, 'Well, we'd appreciate if you would release him. He's gotten old, and he's probably not feeling too well. It would be nice.' And I did not feel optimistic. I have to be honest with you about that one," Mr Trump told the broadcaster.

Mr Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper who was critical of Mr Xi and the ruling Communist Party, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in February under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 that has virtually silenced dissent in Hong Kong.

Mr Lai's case sparked global concerns over the national security clampdown in Hong Kong, with observers saying his case symbolised a decline in freedoms that Beijing had promised when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Foreign governments, including the UK and US, have raised concerns about Mr Lai - a British citizen - since he was arrested in 2020, but Hong Kong's government insists his case had nothing to do with press freedom.

Earlier this week, China's foreign ministry claimed Mr Lai had been a key planner of anti-China activities that aimed at destabilising Hong Kong. It added that the city's affairs are China's internal affairs.

Read more: Who is Jimmy Lai? 'Prisoner of conscience' sentenced after lengthy legal battle

Meanwhile, Mr Trump told reporters he also talked to Mr Xi about potentially releasing Ezra Jin Mingri, a prominent pastor of an underground church who was arrested in China in November along with nearly 30 other pastors in what observers have called an escalating crackdown on religious freedom.

"He said he's gonna strongly consider the pastor," Mr Trump said.

Mr Jin and the other pastors of the underground Zion Church were arrested after new rules from China's top religion regulator banned unauthorised online preaching or religious training by clergy, as well as "foreign collusion".

The families of both Mr Jin and Mr Lai said they appreciated Mr Trump for raising their cases with Mr Xi.

Mr Jin's daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, said her family and supporters were "overjoyed" to hear what Mr Trump had said about her father, calling it "nothing short of miraculous".

"We could not be more grateful to President Trump and his skillful administration for pressing the case," she said.

Despite Mr Trump's far less optimistic tone on Mr Lai, the former media mogul's daughter, Claire Lai, said she also was grateful to the US president and his administration for the commitment shown to her father's release.

Read more from Sky News:
Five tourists die deep diving in Maldives
CIA chief visits Cuba as US demands changes

"He has earned his reputation as liberating the unjustly detained and I am confident he and his administration will be the ones to free my father," she said.

She said this was an opportunity for Mr Xi to do "the only just and honourable thing" for Mr Lai and to show a gesture of goodwill to the world by releasing a man she said had dedicated himself to Hong Kong.

(c) Sky News 2026: Trump says freeing activist Jimmy Lai jailed in China is 'tough'