WASHINGTON — Jimmy Lai learned of his daughter’s cancer diagnosis from the Hong Kong jail cell where he’s been imprisoned for nearly six years.
“Just now [redacted] came and told me the bad news, that the lump on your throat is cancer,” Lai wrote to his daughter in a letter shared with The Daily Wire this week. “May God have mercy, help us!”
Claire Lai has worked tirelessly to free her father, a businessman and newspaper publisher jailed for publishing criticisms of Beijing. But as she begins cancer treatment in the United Kingdom, she tells The Daily Wire that she will have fewer opportunities to travel around making her father’s case.
This all comes, as the Lai family is well aware, days before President Donald Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House.
Claire Lai begins cancer treatment in the United Kingdom. Photo courtesy of Claire Lai.
When Trump visited China in the spring, he raised Jimmy Lai’s case with Xi. He also asked Xi about Pastor Ezra Jin, whom the Chinese leader ultimately agreed to release. Trump told reporters as he departed China that Jimmy’s case is “a tougher one,” that Xi felt very strongly about it, and that the Chinese president would have a hard time releasing Jimmy.
Jimmy Lai remains in prison, in solitary confinement. His family no longer receives medical updates, but they know that he recently underwent an operation on his eyes, and Claire regularly receives letters from him. Guards at Stanley Prison in Hong Kong have rehearsed what procedures they will follow if he dies, according to a new report from the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, sourcing a person with direct knowledge of prison operations.
“The Chinese government keeps claiming that Jimmy Lai is in good health and properly treated,” argues Frances Hui, policy and advocacy manager at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation. “But his family no longer receives medical updates, independent examinations are denied, and prison staff have rehearsed what to do if he dies in custody. We don’t know what prompted those rehearsals, and that’s exactly why independent medical access is so urgent. Democratic leaders must press for Lai’s unconditional release and safe exit.”
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai (Photo by Keith Tsuji/Getty Images)
His daughter is still extremely hopeful that Trump can rescue her father. Ahead of her cancer treatment, she told The Daily Wire that she is “so grateful” to Trump for bringing her father up to Xi on two separate occasions, and for “the commitment his administration has shown to freeing him.”
“He has a well earned reputation as a liberator in chief and I continue to have every confidence that it is under this administration that his freedom will be secured,” she said. She also expressed gratitude to members of Congress for the support they have shown to her family. “I know my father would join me in thanking you all today if he could.”
Xi will come to the White House on Thursday morning. The president and first lady Melania Trump are set to host a State Arrival Ceremony honoring the Chinese president and his wife, Madame Peng Liyuan, featuring 479 military personnel, including all branches of the United States Armed Forces.
The Chinese Communist Party sentenced Lai to 20 years in prison under a national security law the country uses to crack down on dissenters. His health has been deteriorating rapidly, and at 78-years-old, the CCP sentence means he will die in prison. He is a Chinese-born British citizen who published “Apple Daily” in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021.
In 2021, Chinese authorities arrested top executives at Jimmy’s publication and froze its assets. After a two-year trial and five-year detention, the CCP convicted him in 2025 of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious material, painting him as “the mastermind and behind-the-scenes manipulator.”
Lai is a devout Catholic who has taken great solace in his faith throughout his imprisonment, evangelizing and drawing pictures of the crucified Jesus Christ to share with his fellow prisoners. His daughter shared letters with The Daily Wire from her father, letters showing his deep trust in Jesus Christ and his conviction that God sends each person trials that will prepare them for some greater good.
Letter from Jimmy Lai to his daughter, Claire Lai. Photo courtesy of Claire Lai.
“My dearest daughter, my darling, be strong and trust the Lord’s salvation to save you from this,” he wrote to Claire as he processed the news of her cancer. “God sent you this trial for a reason, a reason beyond our comprehension but we must trust that for Him to suffer and go through, He must be preparing you to meet something important and good. For God does nothing in vain.”
“He knows that you are good and are His good servant, bring people back to Him and to love Him,” Jimmy continued. “He wants you to be better than good and be consecrated by this trial to be super good and to serve Him … let Our Lord’s grace light up your heart that you see the wisdom of this suffering … do not worry, be sure that God is beside you, looking over you and consoling you.”
Letter from Jimmy Lai to his daughter, Claire Lai. Photo courtesy of Claire Lai.
Claire Lai is optimistic about her cancer treatment, and, like her father, she believes that her suffering offers her an opportunity to rely even more fully on God’s will. Her next infusion will be in early October on the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, a French nun whose “Little Way” spirituality has made her one of the church’s most popular saints. It’s a way of life that Claire Lai’s parents instilled in her from a young age.
“My father is a man who stood for the values that made Hong Kong prosperous back when it was perfectly legal to do so,” she told The Daily Wire. “For that he was given a life sentence. His faith in God continues to sustain him for which we are all so grateful. From his letters I can feel how desperately he wishes he were with us now, and I desperately wish he was too.”
Even from prison, her father is able to lead her by his example in suffering, she shared.
“In my much lighter trial, I hope to do so as a grace half as well as he has,” Claire Lai said. “I think Pope John Paul II said it well — suffering, whatever form it takes, isn’t something that can be separated from man’s existence. But when we surrender to the Cross, our human trials are lightened. Through every trial I have had I have felt God’s strength and peace — that which I know is not my own.”
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