U.S. President Donald Trump should press Asian leaders on human rights at Asia-Pacific Summit in Seoul
(BANGKOK, October 29, 2025) – U.S. President Donald Trump should prioritize the deteriorating human rights situations in China, Myanmar, and North Korea when he meets Xi Jinping and other leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-Operation (APEC) Summit in Seoul later this week, said Fortify Rights today.
“President Trump should urge Xi Jinping to end the persecution of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, and Christians across China, the repression in Hong Kong, and the crackdown on dissidents throughout the country,” said Benedict Rogers, Senior Director at Fortify Rights. “He should also use his political and economic leverage to urge China to stop the forced repatriation of North Korean escapees, and to cease its support for the military junta in Myanmar, which is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
President Trump has said he will press Xi Jinping to free Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, aged 77, from prison. Chinese authorities have arbitrarily imprisoned Mr Lai, a British citizen, since December 2020, and they have confined him to 1,764 days in solitary confinement, an act that constitutes cruel and inhumane treatment.
Last week, a group of more than 30 US Senators wrote to President Trump, urging him to secure Mr. Lai’s freedom. Mr Lai is the founder of the Apple Daily—Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy newspaper until Chinese authorities shut it down in 2021. Mr Lai’s trial under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law concluded on August 28, 2025, and he is awaiting the verdict.
President Trump should also seek the release of Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and 30 Christians associated with the Zion Church network, who were arbitrarily arrested by Chinese authorities earlier this month.
In Myanmar, the population continues to endure an unprecedented human rights and humanitarian catastrophe, triggered by the military junta’s coup d’etat in 2021, and sustained by the impunity enjoyed by coup-leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officials responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. China wields considerable political and economic influence over the junta and effectively props it up and protects it internationally—including at the U.N. Security Council—despite a nationwide pro-democracy revolution.
President Trump should use his meeting with Xi Jinping to press for specific changes in Myanmar, including the release of more than 20,000 political prisoners, an end to attacks on civilians, the restoration of civilian rule, and accountability for ongoing mass atrocity crimes. He should leverage U.S. influence to help ensure the people of Myanmar can determine their own political future.
A meeting between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un has been rumoured but not confirmed. President Trump began his first Asian tour of his second presidential term in Malaysia for the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit last Sunday, and he continued to Japan on Monday, and is scheduled to arrive in Seoul today. He has indicated he would be willing to meet Kim Jong-Un, and would even extend his Asia tour to do so. The two leaders met three times during President Trump’s first term in office, in Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in 2019, and again in the Demilitarized Zone on the border of North and South Korea later in 2019.
If President Trump and the North Korean dictator meet this week, the human rights crisis in North Korea should be central to the agenda.
“This is a crucial opportunity to help address and solve some of the most egregious human rights concerns in Asia. President Trump should press Asia’s democracies – particularly Japan and South Korea – to be more vocal on the human rights crises in Myanmar, North Korea, and China, and press Asia’s dictators – particularly Xi Jinping – to cease the brutal repression at home and complicity with atrocity crimes abroad,” said Benedict Rogers. “While APEC is primarily about economic co-operation, grave human rights violations across the region should not be ignored. Human rights protections are, in fact, essential for sustainable economic growth.”