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A detained US scholar’s wife asks Trump for help as Xi’s Washington visit nears

Sylvia Zin said Trump’s past deals with Xi give her hope that her husband and other detained Americans could be freed.

  • On Wednesday, Sebastien Lai testified before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China in Washington, urging his father Jimmy Lai's release one week before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the United States.
  • Jimmy Lai, a prominent critic of Beijing, founded a pro-democracy newspaper shut down during a 2019 crackdown. A Hong Kong court sentenced the 78-year-old to 20 years in prison in February under a Beijing-imposed national security law.
  • Describing his father as a 78-year-old man who has "already suffered enough," Sebastien Lai requested his release to sit beside daughter Claire, who began chemotherapy in London last week.
  • President Donald Trump has previously raised Lai's case with Xi during a May state visit to China; with the two leaders expected to meet in Washington on Sept 24, observers see potential for diplomatic deal-making.
  • Sebastien Lai warned that if his father is not freed soon, the aging activist will "most likely die in prison." The 78-year-old faces a 20-year sentence in Hong Kong, underscoring the case's urgency.
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(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Yong-rae = The son of imprisoned Hong Kong anti-China journalist Jimmy Lai [attended] on the 16th (local time) ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the U.S....

·Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)
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The Daily Signal broke the news in Washington, United States on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.
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