Misleading: Old Trump quote about 2019 protests misused after Jimmy Lai sentencing
On Feb. 9, Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, founder of now-defunct popular tabloid Apple Daily, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious materials under the National Security Law.
Two days later, a Threads user shared a screenshot of a Lianhe Zaobao headline that reads, “特朗普：习近平对香港抗议活动‘采取了负责任的做法’ (Trump: Xi Jinping ‘took a responsible approach’ towards Hong Kong protests).” Lianhe Zaobao is the largest Chinese-language newspaper in Singapore.
The post also compiled reactions from China, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, the European Union, and Japan, to Lai’s sentence. It gained traction quickly, receiving more than 1,600 likes, 89 forwards, and 53 reposts within a day.
However, the claim is misleading. Although the Threads post suggests the Trump quote reflected his current position on Lai’s conviction, the Lianhe Zaobao headline predates Lai’s trial and sentencing by more than six years, published on July 23, 2019.
The article (archived here) was written during the height of mass demonstrations over a proposed extradition bill in Hong Kong. It reported on Trump’s remark that Chinese President Xi Jinping had “acted responsibly” in handling what were then seven straight weeks of protests, not any court case involving Lai.
As of this writing, the U.S. President has not personally commented on Lai’s 20-year sentence, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement and called for a “humanitarian parole” (archived here).
The most recent on-the-record remark from Trump about Lai that Annie Lab could find dates back to Dec. 15, 2025, the day Lai was convicted. According to AFP (archived here), the U.S. president said, “I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release.”
While the Trump quote in the Threads post is misleading, other statements attributed to China, the U.K., the U.N., the EU, and Japan are broadly consistent with those governments’ and organizations’ public reactions to Lai’s conviction and sentencing.
The Hong Kong government issued a statement on Feb. 10 condemning “the Western countries, anti-China media, organisations and politicians” for questioning the “court’s independent judgement and sentence handed down in accordance with the law.”
