U.S. President Donald Trump said he would raise the release of Jimmy Lai and Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri with Chinese President Xi Jinping as families of Chinese political prisoners gathered outside the White House in the rain to advocate for their release.
Trump is set to travel to Beijing May 13–15 with a focus on trade, Taiwan, the Iran conflict, and emerging technology issues. Trump said the release of Lai, the jailed Catholic media tycoon and democracy advocate, also will be brought up.
“Jimmy Lai, he caused lots of turmoil for China,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office on May 11. “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.”
Trump said asking the Chinese president to release Lai would be akin to Xi Jinping asking him to release indicted former FBI Director James Comey if he was imprisoned. Comey was indicted on April 28 by a federal grand jury in North Carolina for posting seashells on Instagram arranged to show “86 47,” which prosecutors claim is a
