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WASHINGTON\u00a0 \u2014 Ahead of his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping \u2014 where topics ranging from artificial intelligence to the Iran war to a potential U.S. arms deal with Taiwan are expected to dominate \u2014 advocates have urged President Donald Trump to raise human rights issues, including religious freedom and the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai.<\/p>\n
The high-stakes summit, which would be Xi\u2019s first visit to Washington since 2015, is expected to include a state dinner. In a sign of how AI is expected to feature heavily in their summit, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon plan to attend the state dinner, Politico reported.<\/p>\n
But many key topics the pair are expected to discuss present points of friction between two world powers: Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S.-Iran war and a potential U.S. arms deal with Taiwan, a self-governing and democratic island that China sees as part of its territory.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nMary Ellen O\u2019Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, noted in comments to OSV News that Xi \u201cis skipping \u2018high-level\u2019 week at United Nations headquarters in New York, despite being in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is headed to Washington, D.C. for a state visit,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd no wonder. In New York, diplomats are likely to press him on human rights, including the oppression of Roman Catholics and people of other faiths; the purchase of oil from Russia that is fueling the Ukraine War; racing for advantage in the AI arms race, despite ample evidence of the dangers; lack of democracy and justice; threats to Taiwan and other neighbors; failure to support the U.N. in its goals of environmental protection, global health, poverty eradication, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of those same issues are among those advocates have urged Trump to remember during his meeting with XI, including threats to religious liberty and the imprisonment of Lai, Hong Kong\u2019s prominent Catholic media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner.<\/p>\n
Lai, who founded the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, protested in favor of democratic freedoms<\/a> \u2014 such as freedom of the press and expression \u2014 in Hong Kong, which was designated a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997, ending British rule of that area after more than 150 years. Following pro-democracy protests in 2019, China implemented a purported national security law the next year, which is alleged to have been used to silence the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n Under that law, Lai was arrested in August 2020<\/a> and has been imprisoned since December 2020. He pleaded not guilty to the charges before his Dec. 15 conviction.<\/p>\n At a Sept. 16 hearing examining Lai\u2019s imprisonment, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a Catholic and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, told OSV News that during the upcoming meeting, Trump \u201chas to be absolutely unmovable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>