“I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release,” Trump told reporters, without specifying when he asked Xi. “He’s an older man, and he’s not well. So I did put that request out. We’ll see what happens.”
Trump had said before he returned to the White House that he wanted to free Lai, a successful businessman who launched the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily. Trump met with Xi in October in South Korea, where he is believed to have raised Lai’s case.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an X post shortly following Trump’s remarks, said the verdict showed China’s determination to “silence those who seek to protect freedom of speech and other fundamental rights.”
Lai, 78, was found guilty Monday on all three charges in a national security trial and could spend the rest of his life in prison, after already being jailed since his arrest in late 2020.
Following the verdict, Hong Kong authorities expressed “strong dissatisfaction with and opposition to” the US, Western countries and “anti-China media “over their “malicious attacks, false statements and smears”.
A government spokesman described the criticism as “despicable political manipulations” aimed at smearing and attacking Hong Kong, stressing that the judgment was made “strictly in accordance with the law and evidence” and was “entirely free from any political considerations”.
Platform with AFP
