We didn’t immediately learn whether, during the recent summit talks in Washington, Donald Trump had asked Xi Jinping to release anybody. But now a blip of hope has emerged (Reuters, September 30).
“I did with President Xi. I did,” Trump told reporters when asked if he brought up the cases of political prisoners like Myanmar scholar and US citizen Min Zin, who was arrested in June, and Hong Kong’s most vocal China critic and media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
“We talked, and I think we had some very, very important discussions. Hopefully, fruitful discussions,” Trump added.
The White House had said ahead of Xi’s visit that Trump was expected to bring up cases of people wrongfully detained in China with the Chinese leader.
The White House did not say if Trump aimed to directly raise broader rights issues related to Tibet, the Uyghur Muslim minority group, and China’s new “ethnic unity” law.
Trump has made winning freedom for Americans held overseas a priority, including in China, even as he has largely avoided talking about China’s treatment of Tibetans, Uyghurs and voices of dissent.
The question, asked by a reporter from the Daily Signal: “Mr. President, last week in your meeting with Xi, did you discuss the release of political prisoners such as American Min Zin, Jimmy Lai?
The Hong Kong government sentenced Jimmy Lai, the former publisher of Apple Daily, to twenty years in prison for his role in fighting for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong. He is a British citizen, but the People’s Republic of China does not recognize dual citizenship and regards him as only a Chinese national. President Trump has said that he asked Xi Jinping to release Lai during the October 2025 summit meeting in Busan, South Korea but that Xi was not receptive to the idea.
Min Zin
Human rights activist and scholar Min Zin (shown above) has been a U.S. citizen since 2012. His subjects include Myanmar, where he grew up, and China’s foreign policy. In June 2026 he traveled to China, as he had often done before, to attend an academic conference to which he had been invited. Soon after his arrival, though, the CCP arrested him, and it is holding him on suspicion of “engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security.” The U.S. State Department has formally designated Min Zin as wrongly detained.
It seems that one or two releases of wrongly detained persons whose cases have gotten attention are the most we can expect in consequence of any particular meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, the CCP unjustly imprisons hundreds of thousands.
