HONG KONG, CHINA – 2021/12/11: A pro-democracy activist hangs a yellow banner with the message “Free All Political Prisoners” during a protest in Hong Kong. (Photo by Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
As President Trump heads to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping, trade and economic cooperation between the U.S. and China will be top of mind. But the President has signaled that it won’t be the only priority, saying in a recent interview that he plans to press Xi to free famed Hong Konger, Jimmy Lai.
The President’s comments were a welcome sign that the U.S. intends to advocate on behalf of high-profile political prisoners detained across China. Lai, the 78-year-old founder of pro-democracy news outlet, Apple Daily, has been detained in near-constant solitary confinement for the past five years – a violation of international law and a cruel and unjust punishment for an elderly man in poor health.
If President Trump were to go to China and raise the case of political prisoners, it would send a clear signal of who has the upper hand in negotiations. The U.S. should be clear-eyed that China would not be at the negotiating table if it didn’t want something – namely continued access to U.S. markets and economic cooperation between the two countries. If the CCP wants something badly enough, they have historically been willing to give something in return.
The bold move for the President, therefore, would be to press for the release of several high-profile political prisoners, including Jimmy Lai, Uyghur doctor Gulshan Abbas, and Chinese Christian Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, as well as others. In the case of Abbas, she has 24 American family members who desire to see her freed and reunited with her family in the U.S. And Pastor Jin has an American citizen daughter and two sons who want nothing more than to be reunited with their Dad.
If the President were to go to China having secured the release of several priority political prisoners, it would be a huge win for America, and a continuation of the President’s own track record of securing the release of political prisoners and hostages in other contexts, including freeing Israeli hostages from Gaza, and securing the release of political prisoners from Venezuela and Belarus.
The U.S. should make use of the leverage it has at this key diplomatic moment to secure the release of priority political prisoners. That means using the range of diplomatic tools it has at its disposal, including the threat of sanctions, the coercive power of tariffs, and the possibility of prisoner swaps, to set them free. Securing their release demonstrates U.S. resolve and willingness to do what it takes to ensure that the CCP does not have the final say on the destiny of these individuals.
President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and others in the administration should see political prisoners not as peripheral, but as central, to achieving success at the summit. Freeing Jimmy Lai, Gulshan Abbas, and Pastor Jin, and other priority political prisoners is not just the strategic thing to do, it’s also the right thing to do.