Foreign Affairs

Trump Admin Calls Out China’s ‘Tragic’ Punishment Of Popular Activist

Studio Incendo/Wikimedia Commons

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the sentencing of Jimmy Lai, a British-born anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) activist, an “unjust and tragic” verdict in a statement on Monday.

Rubio stated China “will go to extraordinary lengths” to suppress freedom in Hong Kong, and urges the nation to “grant Mr. Lai humanitarian parole.” Lai was sentenced to 20 years in jail following a trial that lasted over two years.

“The Hong Kong High Court’s decision to sentence Jimmy Lai to 20 years is an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case,” the statement reads. “It shows the world that Beijing will go to extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, casting aside the international commitments Beijing made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.”

Rubio cited a 1984 treaty signed between the United Kingdom and China, in which China agreed that citizens of Hong Kong would maintain freedom of the press in the special administrative region.

“After enduring a trial lasting two years, and detention in prison for more than five, Mr. Lai and his family have suffered enough,” the statement continues. “The United States urges the authorities to grant Mr. Lai humanitarian parole.”

Rubio previously criticized the guilty verdict handed down in December 2025, claiming, “Mr. Lai’s health has severely deteriorated during more than 1,800 days in prison.”

Republican Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on China, called Lai’s sentencing “the latest stain on the human rights record of the Chinese Communist Party” in a statement posted to X.

A statement from Chairman @RepMoolenaar on the sentencing of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai: pic.twitter.com/U8b71ImHEL

— Select Committee on China (@ChinaSelect) February 9, 2026

Lai was first arrested in 2020 under China’s National Security Law for “colluding with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security,” according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.