Claire Lai warns China risks creating a martyr by jailing her father

President Trump is heading to China this week, and one of the people watching closely is Jimmy Lai’s daughter, Claire Lai. His father is a Hong Kong businessman, media mogul and staunch Catholic who was imprisoned and sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Communist regime for openly criticizing the Chinese government.

More than 100 US lawmakers sent a letter to President Trump urging him to address Lai’s issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he meets with the Chinese leader. On the other hand, Claire has a few words for Xi.

“If my father dies behind bars, he will be a martyr. This is not what China wants.”

The possibility that her father may die in prison is a possibility that Claire accepts. The father of billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, 78, a staunch Catholic and political prisoner, was convicted by a Beijing-backed Hong Kong court in February and ordered to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars.

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He was convicted in December of conspiracy to commit rebellion and collusion with foreign powers. His sentence was the longest imposed under China’s new national security law. Many experts believe that this law was created for the sole purpose of silencing Lai, one of the communist country’s fiercest critics.

Claire was unable to attend the sentencing. “I’m heartbroken,” he says. “This was the first time he was being sentenced in Hong Kong where I wasn’t with him. … It was a hard pill to swallow.” However, the letter he received from him, stating that “he is in the safe hands of our Lord and that this will not change no matter what the outcome” strengthened him.

The court’s decision sparked an outpouring of negative reactions from those around the world who are deeply concerned about religious freedoms and freedom of expression. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the sentence “an unjust and tragic outcome of this case.”

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The UK government also condemned the British citizen’s sentence, calling it a “death sentence” for the frail Lai, who suffered from diabetes and several other medical conditions as he was kept in solitary confinement.

Canada’s foreign minister called the sentence a “politically motivated investigation” and requested Lai’s release on humanitarian grounds.

As she pleads for Lai’s release, Claire, 29, a lawyer and now outspoken defender of her father, says Lai’s faith in Jesus Christ, a God whose power is perfected in weakness, keeps his frail body afloat. One of the people he implored is President Donald Trump.

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Trump will go to China this week and meet with Xi. Claire, who was invited to the State of the Union address by House Speaker Mike Johnson in February, hopes the president will bring up his father’s situation with Xi. Claire says: “We are extremely grateful to President Trump and his administration. … We hope that the solution will be a little closer to a diplomatic solution.”

Speaking on my “Lighthouse Faith” podcast, Claire Lai issued a subtle but firm warning: “It is absolutely in China’s interest to release my father. So they risk becoming martyrs behind bars.”

What he means is that by keeping his father in prison until his death, China can achieve the exact opposite of what it intends to do. Rather than silencing critics, Beijing can encourage them with Lai’s example of faith in the midst of horrific persecution.

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Christianity has grown exponentially for centuries, relying on the blood of martyrs. For 2,000 years, followers of Jesus, the suffering servant who died unjustly at the hands of Roman rulers, learned to obey God rather than earthly leaders. His eyes are fixed on eternity and God, the Lord of history.

People gather in front of the Chinese Consulate General to protest the wrongful conviction of media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai on February 14, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Jimmy Lai is a Hong Kong media entrepreneur who advocates for Press freedom. He has been detained since December 2, 2020 and was found guilty of violating Beijing’s National Security Law on Hong Kong, passed on June 30, 2020. The prosecution prosecuted him retroactively for his activities before June 30, 2020. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

For centuries, leaders like China who thought they could stop the spread of Christianity by killing their followers learned the hard way that, as Jesus said to the apostle Peter, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against my church.”

Jimmy Lai’s story is an incredible achievement. At the age of 12, he fled China on a fishing boat and arrived in Hong Kong, which was still under British rule. He went on to become a media mogul and billionaire businessman. Claire converted to Catholicism at birth and never gave up her faith.

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“At the time of his conversion, during the handover, the hearts of many people in Hong Kong were filled with fear and doubt. I think he learned then that the only thing that could overcome that was God’s love,” Claire says.

For more than 150 years, Hong Kong was a British colony. It has become a prosperous, cosmopolitan and democratic powerhouse, with 7.5 million people living in an area of ​​just under 700 square miles. However, the handover in 1997 returned Hong Kong to China. At the time, its leaders promised that things in the former colony would not change. But they lied.

Things have changed. Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China. Freedom of expression, religious expression and democracy have been completely destroyed. However, Jimmy Lai continued to speak out against the communist regime, using his media empire, the Apple Daily newspaper, and other outlets. Then in 2020, the government countered with the national security law, a vague, undefined law used to crack down on anyone deemed a dissident and to arrest, charge and convict people like Jimmy Lai and others with similar views.

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Just a few months ago, in March, it was reported that the owner and three employees of one of Hong Kong’s last independent bookstores had been arrested. Books were seized, including all copies of Jimmy Lai’s biography. The bookstore closed. They were reportedly arrested for “knowingly selling seditious publications.”

Ultimately, despite the political maneuverings of secular regimes and power brokers, Jimmy Lai’s fate is in God’s hands. That’s why Jimmy Lai prays. He prays for the guards, for the sick, for the prisoners, for those who are not in prison, and for those who pray for him. And although he is weakened, he fasts.

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Claire says: “He fasts every Friday, and fasting is not easy for a man like him. When he does he trembles and the guards put the food in front of him and… he just sits. So he sits with his hunger and looks at the cross he has drawn and tells himself that his trembling and his pain are nothing compared to what our Savior suffered for us sinners.”

China, watch out. What kind of power do you really have over such a man?

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