Families of Jimmy Lai, Min Zin plead in Washington for their release ahead of Xi’s visit

WASHINGTON (AP) — The son of imprisoned former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai appealed for his father’s release at a congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday, one week before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the U.S.

Sebastien Lai urged his father’s release on humanitarian grounds at a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. A Hong Kong court sentenced Lai to 20 years in prison in February following his conviction under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

On the same day, Sylvia Zin, the wife of a U.S. scholar who has been detained in China for more than three months, appeared before a House foreign affairs subcommittee, asking for help to free her husband, Min Zin.

“I’m deeply hopeful that President Trump will raise my husband’s case with President XI Jinping during the summit next week,” she said.

Zin is one of two U.S. citizens that the State Department considers wrongfully detained in China. The other one is Youlin Chen, a Chinese-born American seismologist who has been detained in China for nearly two years. Their cases are considered a high diplomatic priority for the U.S. government.

Trump secured the release of Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri after meeting with Xi in Beijing in May. Trump also raised Lai’s case with Xi but said it was a tough one.

The family now is making another push.

“Let Jimmy Lai come home to his family and let him sit beside his daughter in her hardest moment,” his son said, describing his father as “a 78-year-old man who has already suffered enough.”

Lai, a prominent critic of Beijing, founded a pro-democracy newspaper that was shut down during a crackdown following the city’s massive anti-government protests in 2019.

“At 78, he is the oldest political prisoner in Hong Kong, with his 20-year sentence looming over him. If he’s not freed soon, he will most likely die in prison,” his son said.

Xi and Trump are expected to meet in Washington on Sept. 24. It would be Xi’s first visit to Washington in more than a decade. He last visited the United States in 2023, when he attended the APEC summit in San Francisco.

Lai’s daughter, Claire, did not appear at Wednesday’s hearing after being diagnosed with cancer. Her brother said she began chemotherapy in London last week.