US President Donald Trump in China’s capital, Xi Jinping, spoke with him last week about the release of political prisoners, Trump said on Wednesday.
Triggered by specific enquiries on Min Zin and Lai, a scholar and US citizen in custody in China and the Hong Kong media tycoon, respectively, Trump confirmed that he had raised the matter with the people in China.
I had an interview with President Xi. When asked whether he mentioned the cases, Trump said: “I did. The two leaders have had “some important discussions” and they hope it will be productive, he added.
The White House had said ahead of Xi’s visit that Trump will discuss issues owned up by Washington regarding Americans who they have deemed “wrongfully detained” in China. But it was not immediately clear if was also part of the talks more general aspects of human rights with reference to Tibet, the Uighur Muslims and China’s policies on political dissension.
Releasing people jailed in the foreign countries is a declared goal of Trump. His new remarks followed his meeting with Xi on September 24 when the leaders discussed various bilateral issues, including trade and other areas of US-China relations.
The founder of Hong Kong’s now closed shop-as-a-service Apple Daily newspaper, Jimmy Lai, has been the focus of anxiety among international worrywarts about the territory’s national security crackdown. Lai was found guilty in February on national security related charges, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In June, a US citizen named Min Zin, a scholar of Myanmar, was arrested by Chinese authorities. The report says Washington reckoned him wrongfully detained in August.
Trump’s remarks were somewhat vague as to what was discussed in the individual situations or what commitments were made by Beijing. The White House and Chinese authorities have not given details of any particular result in regard to the prisoners.
The situation arises as both governments engage in diplomacy after Xi’s three-day visit to the US. The two countries recently reached agreement on tariff issues, trade talks and cooperation in the field of AI, as well as negotiations are continuing on several other points on bilateral cooperation.