Trump must force Xi to answer for China's cruel war on Jimmy Lai

President Trump is heading to China this week, and 1 idiosyncratic watching intimately is Claire Lai, the girl of Jimmy Lai. Her begetter is simply a Hong Kong businessman, media mogul and faithful Catholic who has been imprisoned and sentenced to 20 years by the Communist authorities for being an outspoken professional of the Chinese government.

More than 100 U.S. lawmakers person sent President Trump a missive urging him to code Lai’s lawsuit with Chinese President Xi Jinping erstwhile helium meets with China’s leader. Claire, connected the different hand, has a fewer words for Xi herself.

"If my begetter dies down bars, helium volition dice a martyr. And that is not thing that China wants."

That her begetter whitethorn dice successful situation is simply a anticipation Claire has travel to presumption with. Her father, the 78-year-old billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a faithful Catholic and governmental prisoner, was sentenced by a Beijing-backed Hong Kong tribunal successful February, consigned to walk what volition beryllium the remainder of his earthy beingness down bars.

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He was recovered blameworthy successful December of sedition and conspiracy to perpetrate collusion with overseas forces. His condemnation is the longest handed down nether China's caller nationalist information law. It’s a statute galore experts judge was created for the sole intent of silencing Lai, 1 of the communist country's astir ardent critics.

Claire was not capable to be the sentencing. "I was heartbroken," she says. "It was the archetypal clip that helium had been sentenced wherever I wasn't successful Hong Kong with him. ... It was a hard pill to swallow." But she was strengthened by the missive she received from him, successful which "he expressed that helium was successful our Lord's bully hands and careless of the outcome, that doesn't change."

The court's ruling ignited an outpouring of antagonistic reactions from crossed the globe from those profoundly acrophobic with spiritual state and state of speech. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the sentencing "an unjust and tragic decision to this case."

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The United Kingdom's authorities besides condemned the condemnation of its British citizen, calling it "a decease sentence" for the frail Lai, who suffers from diabetes and a big of different aesculapian conditions arsenic he's kept successful solitary confinement.

Canada's overseas affairs curate called the sentencing a "politically motivated prosecution" and demanded Lai's merchandise connected humanitarian grounds.

In this representation taken connected June 16, 2020, millionaire media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 72, poses during an interrogation with AFP astatine the Next Digital offices successful Hong Kong.  (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)

But it is Lai's religion successful Jesus Christ, successful a God whose powerfulness is made cleanable successful weakness, that keeps his frail assemblage going, says Claire, 29, an lawyer and present her father's outspoken advocate, pleading for his release. One of those she is pleading with is President Donald Trump.

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This week, Trump volition caput to China and conscionable with Xi. Claire, who was invited by House Speaker Mike Johnson to the State of the Union code successful February, is hoping the president volition rise her father's plight with Xi. Says Claire, "We're truthful highly grateful to President Trump and his administration. ... We bash anticipation that a solution volition beryllium a spot person to a diplomatic solution."

In a subtle yet decisive warning, Claire Lai, speaking connected my "Lighthouse Faith" podcast, said, "It is perfectly successful China's involvement to merchandise my father. I mean, they are astatine hazard of having a martyr down bars."

What she means is that, by keeping her begetter successful situation until helium dies, China whitethorn execute the nonstop other of what it intends. Instead of silencing critics, Beijing whitethorn embolden them done Lai's illustration of religion successful the midst of dire persecution.

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Christianity has grown exponentially for centuries, founded connected the humor of the martyrs. For 2,000 years, those who travel Jesus, the suffering servant who died unjustly astatine the hands of Roman rulers, person learned to obey God alternatively than earthly leaders. Their eyes are fixed connected eternity and a God who is Lord implicit history.

People stitchery successful beforehand of the Chinese Consulate General to protestation the unjust condemnation of media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai connected February 14, 2026 successful Los Angeles, California. Jimmy Lai is simply a Hong Kong media entrepreneur who has stood up for the state of the Press. He has been held since December 2, 2020 and was convicted for violating Beijing's imposed National Security Law connected Hong Kong, which was passed successful June 30, 2020. The prosecution retroactively prosecuted him connected his activities, which were done anterior to June 30, 2020. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

Leaders passim the centuries who thought, similar China, that they could halt Christianity's dispersed by sidesplitting its followers person learned the hard mode that, arsenic Jesus told the apostle Peter, "The gates of hellhole shall not prevail against my church."

Jimmy Lai's communicative is 1 of astonishing success. He escaped China connected a sportfishing vessel and arrived successful Hong Kong, inactive nether British rule, astatine the property of 12. He worked his mode up to becoming a media mogul and billionaire businessman. When Claire was born, helium converted to Catholicism and ne'er wavered successful his faith.

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Says Claire, "At the clip of him converting, it was a clip when, during the handover, galore radical successful Hong Kong had hearts filled with fearfulness and doubt. I deliberation helium learned past that the lone happening that could conquer it was God's love."

For much than 150 years, Hong Kong was a British colony. It became a prosperous, cosmopolitan and antiauthoritarian dynamo, with 7.5 cardinal radical surviving successful a small little than 700 quadrate miles. But successful 1997, the handover gave Hong Kong backmost to China. At the time, its leaders vowed that things successful the erstwhile colony wouldn't change. But they lied.

Things did change. Hong Kong became a peculiar administrative portion of China. Freedom of speech, spiritual look and ideology were each whittled away. But Jimmy Lai kept speaking retired against the communist regime, utilizing his media empire, his Apple Daily paper and different outlets to bash so. Then, successful 2020, the authorities countered with the nationalist information law, a vague, undefined instrumentality utilized to ace down connected anyone deemed to beryllium a dissident and to arrest, complaint and convict radical similar Jimmy Lai and others with akin views.

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Just a fewer months ago, successful March, it was reported that the proprietor and 3 employees of 1 of Hong Kong's past autarkic bookshops were arrested. Books were seized, including each copies of Jimmy Lai's biography. The bookstore closed. They were arrested, reportedly, for "knowingly selling seditious publications."

Ultimately, Jimmy Lai's destiny is successful the hands of God, contempt the governmental maneuvers of secular regimes and powerfulness brokers. That is wherefore Jimmy Lai prays. He prays for the situation guards, for radical who are sick, for those who are imprisoned, for those who are not successful situation and for those who are praying for him. And contempt his weakened condition, helium fasts.

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Says Claire, "He fasts each Friday, and fasting is not casual connected a antheral similar him. He shivers erstwhile helium does, and the guards enactment the nutrient successful beforehand of him and ... helium conscionable sits. So, helium conscionable sits with his hunger, and helium looks astatine the crucifix that helium draws, and helium tells himself that his shivering and his suffering is thing compared to what our Savior suffered for america sinners."

China, instrumentality note. What powerfulness bash you truly person implicit a antheral similar that?

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