President Trump is heading to this week, and one person watching closely is Claire Lai, the daughter of Jimmy Lai. Her father is a Hong Kong businessman, media mogul and faithful Catholic who has been imprisoned and sentenced to 20 years by the Communist regime for being an outspoken critic of the Chinese government.
More than 100 U.S. lawmakers have sent President Trump a letter urging him to address Lais case with Chinese President when he meets with Chinas leader. Claire, on the other hand, has a few words for Xi herself.
“If my father dies behind bars, he will die a martyr. And that is not something that China wants.”
That her father may die in prison is a possibility Claire has come to terms with. Her father, the 78-year-old billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a faithful Catholic and political prisoner, was sentenced by a Beijing-backed Hong Kong court in February, consigned to spend what will be the rest of his natural life behind bars.
He was of sedition and conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces. His sentence is the longest handed down under China’s new national security law. Its a statute many experts believe was created for the sole purpose of silencing Lai, one of the communist country’s most ardent critics.
Claire was not able to attend the sentencing. “I was heartbroken,” she says. “It was the first time that he had been sentenced where I wasn’t in Hong Kong with him. … It was a hard pill to swallow.” But she was strengthened by the letter she received from him, in which “he expressed that he was in our Lord’s good hands and regardless of the outcome, that doesn’t change.”
The court’s ruling ignited an outpouring of negative reactions from across the globe from those deeply concerned with religious freedom and freedom of speech. U.S. Secretary of State called the sentencing “an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case.”
The government also condemned the sentence of its British citizen, calling it “a death sentence” for the frail Lai, who suffers from diabetes and a host of other medical conditions as he’s kept in solitary confinement.
Canada’s minister called the sentencing a “politically motivated prosecution” and demanded Lai’s release on humanitarian grounds.
But it is Lai’s faith in Jesus Christ, in a God whose power is made perfect in weakness, that keeps his frail body going, says Claire, 29, an attorney and now her father’s outspoken advocate, pleading for his release. One of those she is pleading with is President .
This week, Trump will head to China and meet with Xi. Claire, who was invited by House Speaker to the State of the Union address in February, is hoping the president will raise her father’s plight with Xi. Says Claire, “We’re so extremely grateful to President Trump and his administration. … We do hope that a solution will be a bit closer to a diplomatic solution.”
In a subtle yet decisive warning, Claire Lai, speaking on my “Lighthouse ” podcast, said, “It is absolutely in China’s interest to release my father. I mean, they are at risk of having a martyr behind bars.”
What she means is that, by keeping her father in prison until he dies, China may accomplish the exact opposite of what it intends. Instead of silencing critics, Beijing may embolden them through Lai’s example of dire persecution.
Christianity has grown exponentially for centuries, founded on the blood of the martyrs. For 2,000 years, those who follow Jesus, the suffering servant who died unjustly at the hands of Roman rulers, have learned to obey God rather than earthly leaders. Their eyes are fixed on eternity and a God who is Lord over .
Leaders throughout the centuries who thought, like China, that they could stop Christianity’s spread by killing its followers have learned the hard way that, as Jesus told the apostle Peter, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against my church.”
Jimmy Lai’s story is one o
