The daughter of a British citizen jailed in China for 20 years and held in solitary confinement has disclosed that she has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of cancer.
Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong democracy campaigner and media tycoon, has spent six years behind bars and was recently given what his son called a “death sentence” by a court in the Beijing-controlled territory.
His daughter Claire has now revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 30.
Mr Lai, 78, has reportedly spent the past five years in solitary confinement and has been denied medication for diabetes. His nails have fallen off and his teeth are decaying.
Although he faces the possibility of remaining in prison for the rest of his life, Mr Lai has reportedly met his circumstances with stoicism — until learning of his daughter’s diagnosis.
Ms Lai said her father broke down in tears when he was told the news.
She said: “My father, in his six years of imprisonment, he has taken everything in his stride.
“Even when he was ill, when he had heart problems and back problems and was too weak to stand. But that was the one time he really broke down crying.”
Claire Lai revealed that she was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of cancer at the age of 30.
Mr Lai, who obtained British citizenship in 1996 before Hong Kong’s handover to China, was targeted over the outspoken criticism of Beijing published in his Apple Daily newspaper, as well as for personally taking part in protests and vigils.
He was arrested just weeks after China passed its National Security Law for Hong Kong and has been behind bars since December 2020, with critics warning the term amounts to a life – and effectively a death – sentence.
Ms Lai first realised something could be wrong when she began to feel unwell on a run.
She was shocked because she is an avid runner – and later discovered a large lump on her neck.
‘Originally, I was diagnosed with mumps. But mumps is supposed to disappear after two weeks but this lump was still there after five weeks. I got a second opinion, then an ultrasound and a biopsy,’ she told The Times.
Doctors informed her she had an ‘aggressive’ form of cancer but that it was caught early.
She said: ‘My dad always encouraged me to be sporty so, in a lot of ways, I owe the fact that I found out so quickly to him because it was the fact that my body could do things and suddenly it couldn’t that I knew something was really wrong.’
Ms Lai has found it increasingly difficult to see her father because it has become unsafe for her to spend time in Hong Kong after advocating for her father publicly.
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Hong Kong democracy campaigner and media mogul Jimmy Lai (pictured) has spent the last six years in prison and was handed what his son described as a ‘death sentence’ by a court in the Beijing-controlled territory
Ms Lai first realised something could be wrong when she began to feel unwell on a run
She has not seen her father for more than a year.
They instead communicate through letters – but she says the process is agonisingly slow.
‘I wrote to him as soon as I got my diagnosis but it takes a long time for them to go in and out. I haven’t got a letter yet from him because there have been a lot of delays,’ she said.
Instead, her family in Hong Kong, who are allowed a single visit for 30 minutes per week, told Mr Lai the news.
Ms Lai added: ‘I wish I could have told him myself but I do think that seeing him cry would have probably made me cry and that would have probably not been the most productive conversation.’
While she is now undergoing chemotherapy, the treatment means she cannot fly. She worries this will limit her ability to advocate for her father internationally and means she cannot see her 78-year-old father if his health deteriorates.
This year, the prison began refusing the family access to his medical reports.
She added: ‘Securing my father’s freedom is both in China’s interest and the UK’s interest. I’m confident the prime minister won’t forget about another British national who is getting older.’
Mr Lai was convicted in December for conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security, and of conspiracy to publish seditious articles, offences that carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
His son Sebastien said the ‘draconian’ jail term was devastating for the family and life-threatening for his father, adding that it marked the ‘total destruction of the Hong Kong legal system and the end of justice’.
Mr Lai was one of the first prominent figures to be arrested under the new security law in 2020.
Lai was convicted in December of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security, and of conspiracy to publish seditious articles, offences that carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment
Within a year, some of Apple Daily’s senior journalists also were arrested and the newspaper shut down in June 2021.
Lai founded Apple Daily, a now-defunct newspaper known for its fierce criticism of the governments in Hong Kong and Beijing.
Hong Kong’s decline in press freedom has accelerated since the security law was introduced, with the city ranking 140th out of 180 territories in the 2025 press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.