Chinese human rights cases in limbo after Trump-Xi summit

During his summit with China's Xi Jinping this month , US President Donald Trump said he had brought up two prisoners — Christian pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai.

Mingri is the founder of the Zion Protestant Church — one of China's largest underground churches — who was arrested in 2025.

Lai, meanwhile, was sentenced in February to 20 years for foreign collusion and sedition over his ownership of the now-defunct, pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper.

In remarks to reporters on May 15, Trump said Xi had said he would "strongly consider the pastor." But the US president pointed out that his Chinese counterpart had described Lai's case as "a tough one," with Trump admitting he "didn't feel optimistic" about it.

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Trump touts support but progress is slow

Afterward, both Jin's and Lai's families thanked Trump and the White House for the support at such a closely watched summit. 

"We're really grateful that the President mentioned my father at such a consequential meeting," Grace Jin Drexel, Pastor Jin's daughter, told DW.

Lai's daughter, Claire Lai, also thanked the Trump administration "for their commitment to my father's release" as she received Lai's Freedom Award from Freedom House last week. 

However, since Trump's remarks, there have been no further updates from either Washington or Beijing.

"We have not heard any other developments other than what's been made public," Drexel said. "I trust that the administration and all the staff in his [Trump] cabinet are following up."

With Trump inviting Xi to the White House in September, advocacy groups see that upcoming visit as a chance to pressure the Chinese leader to release political prisoners. 

"We in the activist community are very focused on Xi Jinping's visit," Mark Clifford, the president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong and former director of Lai's publisher Next Digital, told DW. "Although Trump tried to downplay expectations, he never said it was impossible."

Pastor Jin's family remains 'cautiously optimistic'

Jin and 17 Zion Church members have been detained in Guangxi, China, since the government arrested 29 people in October 2025. The pastor was charged with "illegally using information networks" for online preaching in the unregistered underground Protestant church, which operates outside government control.

Drexel said that her father "is not doing well in prison" and that Jin has diabetes. As Trump stated that Xi was considering releasing the pastor, Drexel remained "cautiously optimistic."

"This is all very new, and I don't think anyone really has prepared or has a playbook," she said. "China is a very difficult country in terms of releasing other prisoners of conscience, historically."

According to Drexel, Jin has told Chinese authorities that he would be willing to retire from the church and move to the US if released. 

Drexel "had no idea what the negotiation looked like on the back end" for the 17 other detained church members. "Ideally, if my father is released, there's no reason the others should be in prison either," she said. 

Jimmy Lai's supporters call for prisoner swap

Hong Kong's Lai, 78, has been in detention since his arrest in 2020. Lai is among the most prominent public figures to be imprisoned under a China-imposed National Security Law that has silenced dissent in Hong Kong.

This month's Beijing summit was the second time Trump had mentioned Lai's case to Xi, after first raising the issue last year in Busan, South Korea. 

"I see this issue just getting higher and higher profile," Clifford said. "It's not going away, and September is the next target."

Clifford told DW that Lai could be part of a prisoner swap, comparing his case to when Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou avoided extradition from Canada to the US in 2021, in what was widely seen as a de facto exchange for two Canadians who had been detained in China. Beijing has denied that the cases were linked.

Clifford also pointed to rare prisoner swaps in 2024 after an agreement between Xi and Trump's predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, Reporters Without Borders' Asia-Pacific advocacy manager, sees Xi's September Washington visit as a chance to renew the push for Lai's release, as such decisions can be announced during meetings.

"The US administration will do what they promise, and they cannot be alone with it," Bielakowska told DW. As "Jimmy Lai is a UK citizen," she added, "the UK should do more to get him out of prison." 

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Growing diplomatic and economic pressure

Jared Genser, a human rights lawyer who served as pro bono counsel to Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo and represented other Chinese political prisoners, also called for support beyond that from the US.  

"If we want to see forward motion on individual cases, Xi Jinping needs to be hearing consistently and publicly from a much wider array of governments than just the United States," Genser told DW. 

Bielakowska said that the US and Europe's leverage is trade and business. "It's always about business with China. They're very opportunistic with this and they will only act when they see any opportunity for them."

Though Beijing may be reluctant to improve its human rights record, Bielakowska emphasized that China's trade ties with foreign countries remain crucial and could become a vulnerable pressure point. 

"This is where China feels the pressure, because they want to do business with Europe and the US ... They want to prove that they are somehow a partner," she said, "and this is the time for us to use this leverage."

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Edited by: Karl Sexton