A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to help secure the release of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, whom they described as “wrongly imprisoned.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led 50 colleagues in a Sept. 17 letter to Starmer, warning that “time is running out” for Lai, a British citizen, because of his deteriorating health. The senators said that the longer he remains in prison, the greater the risk of an “untimely death.”
U.S. President Donald Trump is on his second day of a two-day state visit to the UK. In August, Trump told Fox News Radio that he would see what he could do to help “save” Lai.
The senators urged Starmer to raise the issue with Trump during the visit, calling it the “most urgent mission.”
“Like our president, we share Mr. Lai’s values and admire his struggle for freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. We are encouraged by the U.S. and U.K. Governments’ determination to free Mr. Lai. We know it will be difficult and that the U.K. will need to explore all possible avenues and use every tool at its disposal to secure Mr. Lai’s freedom,” the senators wrote. “It is vital that the U.S. and the U.K. stand together in doing what is right.”
Lai, 77, is the founder of the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily. He has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since December 2020. A national security trial against Lai began in December 2023.
A Hong Kong court said on Aug. 28 that it will deliver a verdict in the 156-day trial at a later date. Lai has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material. Lai faces possible life imprisonment if found guilty.
Two of the senators who co-signed the letter to Starmer are Sens. James Risch (R-Idaho) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), chair and ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, respectively. Other signatories included Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), John Curtis (R-Utah), and Todd Young (R-Ind.).
In a separate letter dated Sept. 17, Scott, Merkley, Sullivan, Curtis, and Young joined Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) to ask Rubio to “marshal every diplomatic tool,” coordinate closely with the UK, and raise the case “directly with Chinese officials at the highest levels” to push for Lai’s release.
“The charges against Mr. Lai are manufactured to punish him for exercising free expression,” the letter reads. “Lai has been targeted because he used his newspaper, the Apple Daily, to expose Beijing’s efforts to crush dissent and dismantle the rule of law in Hong Kong.”
The seven lawmakers told Rubio that Lai’s case illustrates China’s “broader campaign of oppression” in Hong Kong.
They asked the State Department to provide a briefing “at the earliest possible opportunity” to explain the administration’s efforts to secure Lai’s release.
“Beijing’s assault on Jimmy Lai is an assault on free expression and democracy,“ the letter to Rubio reads. ”The United States must not look away. It is time to free Jimmy Lai.”
During a March interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Rubio said that getting Lai out of prison was a priority and that he had “raised it in every possible form” with his Chinese counterparts.
“We’re going to continue to raise it,” Rubio said at the time. “I think it’s important to know that it’s not something we’ve forgotten about and that it remains a priority, and I think other countries around the world are making the same point as well to the Chinese.”
In March, following the release of an annual State Department report submitted to Congress, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on six Chinese and Hong Kong officials for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and engaging in transnational repression on U.S. soil.
