(Adnkronos) – In last week’s meeting in South Korea with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Donald Trump raised the case of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist, who faces life imprisonment for allegedly violating the national security law. A White House official told NBC News, confirming that the president had promised to speak with Xi about the 77-year-old founder of the now-closed Apple Daily tabloid, who has been detained for over 1,700 days in solitary confinement. Lai has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy with foreign forces and publishing seditious material, and the verdict is expected in the coming weeks.
Trump had declared during his election campaign that he wanted to “save” the activist, assuring that “I will get him out 100%” and that “it would be very easy,” words that had prompted the Hong Kong government to warn him against interfering. From Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning had retorted that Lai is “the main instigator and person responsible” for the 2019 anti-government protests, reiterating that “Hong Kong’s affairs are internal matters of China and do not allow external interference.”
