U.S. President Donald Trump said he has raised the case of detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai with Chinese officials during ongoing trade negotiations, telling Fox News Radio he will "do everything" to help "save" the 77-year-old democracy advocate. Trump acknowledged that Chinese President Xi Jinping "would not be thrilled," but added that Lai’s name "has already entered the circle" of bilateral discussions. Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and to publish seditious material under Hong Kong’s national security law. He has been held in solitary confinement for more than 1,500 days since his arrest in December 2020. Beijing pushed back at Washington’s intervention. Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, called Lai "a key orchestrator" of anti-China activities and warned against "external forces" using judicial cases to "smear and undermine Hong Kong’s rule of law." The human-rights appeal adds a politically sensitive dimension to U.S.–China trade talks, which this week produced a 90-day extension of a tariff truce and plans for further meetings in the coming months.