President Donald Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping told him he would give “serious consideration” to releasing detained pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, but characterized the case of imprisoned pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai as far more difficult.
Speaking to reporters aboard his return flight from China, Trump said Xi pledged to look into Jin’s situation. “He said he’s gonna strongly consider the pastor,” Trump said. As for Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, Trump quoted Xi as saying “that would be a tough one.”
The families of both men welcomed the president’s intervention. Jin’s daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, said the family and supporters were “overjoyed” by Trump’s comments. “It’s truly nothing short of miraculous!” she wrote to The Associated Press. “We could not be more grateful to President Trump and his skillful administration for pressing the case!”
Lai’s daughter, Claire Lai, expressed similar appreciation despite Trump’s far less optimistic tone on her father. “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 called the moment an opportunity for Xi to do “the only just and honorable thing” and show goodwill by releasing a man who she said dedicated himself to Hong Kong.
Ezra Jin Mingri is pastor of Zion Church, one of China’s largest underground house churches, which operate outside the state-sanctioned religious system. He was detained in October in what observers describe as an escalating crackdown on unregistered religious groups. Jin was convicted last month on charges of subverting state power in a closed-door trial (MSI previously reported).
Jimmy Lai, 78, is serving a 20-year prison sentence handed down in February under Hong Kong’s national security law. The Beijing-imposed legislation has been used to silence dissent in the former British colony. Lai was found guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publishing seditious articles. His pro-democracy Apple Daily was closed during a sweeping crackdown that followed massive anti-government protests in 2019. The Hong Kong government has insisted the prosecution is unrelated to press freedom.
On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry pushed back against external criticism, saying Lai had been a key planner of “anti-China activities” aiming to destabilize Hong Kong and that the city’s affairs are China’s internal matters.
The exchange recalled Beijing’s refusal to release Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, a prominent dissident who died in custody in 2017 despite international appeals for his transfer abroad for cancer treatment. Under Xi, activists say, China has grown less willing to release prisoners who challenged the government over human rights.