Trump says he raised case of Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai with Xi

U.S. President Donald Trump said he discussed the case of imprisoned Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during their summit last week, but did not offer details on whether it yielded any results.

“We talked, and I think we had some very, very important discussions — hopefully, fruitful discussions,” he told reporters on Wednesday, when asked about whether he raised Lai’s case or those of Americans detained in China. Trump did not reference any specific cases in his answer.

Trump was under pressure to raise high-profile humanitarian cases when he met with Xi in Washington.

In one of those cases, U Min Zin, a U.S. academic, was detained after traveling to a conference in China at the government’s invitation. The State Department said his detention was wrongful and called the safety and security of U.S. citizens in China a top priority. The U.S. said another citizen, American seismologist Youlin Chen, is also being wrongfully detained in China.

Trump has raised detention cases with Xi before, including that of Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, the leader of a prominent underground Chinese church. China later released the pastor, but other members of his church remain detained.

The case of Lai, a British citizen, has proved more challenging. A media tycoon, Lai founded the now defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong. It was shuttered amid a crackdown from Beijing, with Lai receiving a 20-year prison term on collusion and sedition charges under a national security law.

The punishment for Lai, 78, galvanized human rights advocates and drew international scrutiny of the security law, which critics have called draconian and cast as a tool for Beijing to clamp down on dissent.