Jimmy Lai on Feb. 9 received a 20-year jail sentence in a Hong Kong court. The prominent media mogul’s five-year imprisonment and prosecution has sparked global concerns about China’s communist regime encroaching on civil liberties in Hong Kong.

The severe sentence comes as family members warn Lai’s health has seriously deteriorated during his time in detention, much of which has been spent in solitary confinement. He turned 78 in December 2025.

Lai, founder of the now-defunct Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested and charged in 2020 as Beijing sought to crack down on widespread demonstrations in Hong Kong against the Chinese regime’s imposition of “national security” measures widely viewed as draconian. He was convicted on one charge of conspiring to publish seditious materials and two charges of colluding with foreign forces.

The Hong Kong court justified the harshness of Lai’s final sentencing in part by claiming he played the role of a “mastermind” in alleged efforts to spread dissident messages in the semi-autonomous territory, according to Reuters.

As the outlet also noted, Lai has maintained his innocence of all charges in court, accusing China of persecuting him.

CatholicVote reported in December 2025 that Lai’s daughter, Claire Lai, appealed to Chinese authorities to set her father free. “Half a decade since his incarceration as a political prisoner in Hong Kong, my father, who turned 78 on Monday, is suffering from rapidly deteriorating health,” she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. She reported that he was suffering from symptoms of diabetes and hypertension, as well as failing hearing and vision and persistent infections.

At the time, she wrote, he was in enough pain that it sometimes left him “struggling even to stand up.”

As noted by Reuters, Pope Leo met briefly with Claire Lai and her mother, Jimmy Lai’s wife Teresa, in October 2025.

Several Western diplomats told Reuters they plan to begin negotiations for Lai’s release after he is sentenced. Lai’s lawyer, Robert Pang, said he could not comment when asked whether Lai would appeal and noted that Lai and his legal team have 28 days to decide.

China’s targeting of Lai has drawn criticism from the Trump administration, with U.S. officials publicly calling for Lai’s immediate release and raising his imprisonment as a symbol of Beijing’s attacks on religious freedom in Hong Kong. 

Speaking to reporters in December, President Donald Trump said he spoke to Chinese leader Xi Jinping about Lai and “asked [Xi] to consider his release,” The Guardian reported. Trump also met with Xi in October in South Korea, where the President reportedly raised Lai’s case. In December, Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed “President Trump’s call for Beijing to conclude this ordeal and release Mr. Lai” in an X post.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also raised Lai’s case with Xi during his visit to Beijing in January. Starmer called for the immediate release of Lai, who is a British citizen, and told the UK parliament after his trip that “discussions will continue.”

Lai’s 20-year sentence takes effect immediately as he remains in continuous custody, with the term partially concurrent to his prior fraud sentence. His earliest possible release date is around June 2044, assuming no reductions.