Arthur Liu, father of Alysa Liu, is seen during the "Welcome home Alysa Liu Rally" at City Hall in Oakland, California, March 12, 2026. Anadolu via Getty Images See more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on Google Hong Kong prison guards have started formally rehearsing their procedures in case of Jimmy Lai’s death behind bars.
Lai, 78 years old, has spent more than 2,000 days incarcerated in Hong Kong.
In February, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law.
Last week, a new report from the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation found that guards at Stanley Prison have been practicing what they will do if he dies in custody.
That news hits me hard — because for me, Lai’s story has never been an abstraction.
In 1989, I joined the democracy movement that culminated in the protests in Tiananmen Square.
After the Chinese Communist Party crushed our movement, I ended up on its most-wanted list.
I was fortunate: I escaped China, came to the United States, and became an attorney.
I built my life in a country where the rule of law protects the individual from the power of the state.
He stayed and built Apple Daily to champion freedom and democracy in China.
And when Beijing steadily tightened its grip on Hong Kong, he refused to stay silent.
Earlier this year, after watching my daughter Alysa win Olympic gold in figure skating, I found myself reflecting as never before about what freedom had come to mean to me.
Alysa’s skating in Milan embodied a kind of freedom I once could barely imagine: the freedom to become yourself, to speak, to strive and even to fail without a government deciding what you are permitted to think.
His case shows what happens when the state decides that speech itself is a threat.
Hong Kong authorities convicted Lai of two conspiracy counts involving collusion with foreign forces and another involving seditious publications.
Beijing and Hong Kong officials maintain that his prosecution was legitimate, and that the city continues to operate according to the rule of law.
More accurate: Lai’s prosecution is punishment for journalism and political dissent.
There is no disputing the human reality now confronting his family: Unless something changes, and fast, Lai will likely die in prison.
Before returning to the White House for a second term, President Donald Trump made them a clear commitment.
In a 2024 interview, Hugh Hewitt asked Trump whether he would convince Xi Jinping to get Lai released.
“100%, yes,” Trump answered firmly. “100%, I’ll get him out.”
Xi Jinping arrives in Washington Wednesday for a summit with Trump and a formal state visit.
Trade, tariffs, Taiwan, artificial intelligence and other disputes between the world’s two most powerful countries will crowd the agenda.
Lai’s name belongs at the top of the conversation.
In fact, no other topic should arise without Xi’s unequivocal assent to his release.
Trump needs an unmistakable win in a summit heavy on ceremony — and fulfilling a promise he made before returning to office would keep critics from saying he’s been played by the CCP.
For his part, Xi is facing a stagnant domestic economy that’s straining under heavy public debt.
Releasing an elderly prisoner could buy some much-needed international goodwill.
At their last meeting in Beijing, Xi told Trump that getting Lai out of prison would be difficult.
That’s a bald-faced lie: Xi is the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.
Whatever the legal formalities, it strains credulity to suggest that Lai’s fate is somehow beyond Xi’s influence.
The truth is that if Xi wanted Jimmy Lai free, Jimmy Lai would be free.
For those of us who remember Tiananmen, there’s something painfully familiar about this.
Governments may change their slogans and courtrooms may replace tanks, but the fundamental question remains: What happens to the person who will not be silenced?
As a lawyer, I find the verdicts in Hong Kong’s political prosecutions acutely galling.
Despite Beijing’s promises of autonomy, the rule of law I have spent my career practicing no longer survives there.
And Lai embodies Hong Kongers’ refusal to accept that they could be so badly cheated.
Diplomatic summits produce communiqués, handshakes and carefully negotiated language — much of it forgotten within days.
This week, as Donald Trump rolls out the White House red carpet for Xi Jinping, Jimmy Lai will remain in his cell.
Arthur Liu is a Tiananmen Square refugee and immigration attorney who is the father of Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu.
