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A bipartisan group of 38 US senators is urging President Donald Trump to use his expected summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea next week to secure the release of former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, the latest in the US Congress’s efforts to get human rights on the agenda of the high-stakes meeting. In a letter released on Friday, the lawmakers described Lai as a political prisoner and said the case for his release was “more dire than ever” due to his worsening health. “At 78 years old, he is in poor and deteriorating health. He is a diabetic and suffers from numerous physical ailments that are compounded by his continuing incarceration,” they wrote. “Mr Lai’s representatives have assured us that if he is released, he will leave Hong Kong and never return. He would have no desire to remain in public life. Should he die in prison, on the other hand, he would become a martyr; a powerful and enduring symbol of opposition.” The letter sent to Trump, dated October 23, was led by two Republicans, Rick Scott of Florida, and James Risch, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lai is currently awaiting a verdict after a marathon national security trial in Hong Kong that concluded earlier this year. The businessman-turned-opposition activist, who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid, is the most prominent figure yet to be prosecuted under the Beijing-decreed national security law. US and other Western politicians have repeatedly condemned his prosecution as an attack on press freedom and demanded his release. Hong Kong authorities have dismissed such accusations as attempts to undermine the city’s rule of law. Responding to the letter on Friday, the Chinese embassy in Washington reiterated this. “Hong Kong upholds the rule of law. To abide by the law and bring lawbreakers to justice is a basic principle,” said spokesperson Liu Pengyu. “Jimmy Lai is the principal mastermind and perpetrator behind the series of riots that shook Hong Kong. He is an agent and henchman of those hostile to China.” Trump earlier this year said he would seek to do what he could to “save” Lai, echoing a pledge from the presidential campaign trail last year. The US president is expected to meet Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in South Korea next Thursday local time, as part of a stabilising effort after a recent escalation in tensions. Relations between the US and China hit new lows in recent weeks, after Beijing announced on October 9 that it would roll out further export restrictions on rare earth elements, key raw materials used in hi-tech manufacturing, in what many saw as a response to the expansion of a US trade blacklist. Trump responded to Beijing’s announcement by threatening to impose an additional 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods – which he later conceded was “not sustainable” – and introduce export controls on all “critical software”. More complications arose when two countries began implementing new port fee structures on each other’s ships, and Trump warned he was considering a halt to purchases of Chinese cooking oil. Pressure on China ahead of major events has sometimes yielded results. In 2000, post-arrest publicity helped to release Dickinson College librarian Song Yongyi, then a US permanent resident, when Beijing needed US Congressional approval to join the World Trade Organisation. Also this week, a similar letter was sent to the US president by a group of Republican lawmakers asking him to press Xi for the release of Americans imprisoned or under exit bans in China. Trump said earlier this week that he was seeking a deal with Xi on “everything”.
