President Donald Trump said he talked about political prisoners in China with Chinese President Xi Jinping when the two met in Washington last week.
When asked if he discussed the prisoners, including pro-democracy Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, with Xi, Trump said: “I did,” The Independent reported.
“We talked, and I think we had some very, very important discussions,” Trump said. “Hopefully, fruitful discussions.”
Lai, a 78-year-old British national who founded the defunct “Apple Daily” newspaper in Hong Kong and often criticized China, was given 20 years in prison. Trump, the Independent wrote, was under pressure from the United Kingdom to speak to Xi about Lai.
Other political prisoners the Trump administration has been urged to secure the release of include Min Zin, a scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and Youlin Chen, an American seismologist who was born in China. The U.S. State Department has said both are wrongfully detained.
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