[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 184 (Monday, November 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               HONG KONG

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on a final matter, in the last few 
days, the reports and images coming out of Hong Kong have become even 
more disturbing. The police crackdown on Hongkongers who are standing 
up for their freedom and their region's autonomy has intensified.
  University campuses now literally look like war zones, with 
government forces laying siege to groups of students and other 
protesters. Many observers feel the situation may be verging on 
something truly terrible. In the midst of this crackdown, just today, 
Hong Kong's High Court ruled against the executive and actually in 
favor of the protesters' rights--yet another signal it is the 
government that is acting beyond the bounds of its authorities.
  This latest escalation against Hongkongers comes as Beijing faces 
international fallout from leaked documents that delineate the 
government's chilling, systematic campaign against ethnic minorities in 
another supposedly autonomous region, Xinjiang--hundreds of pages of 
internal documents from the Chinese Communist Party government. It is a 
handbook for this Orwellian campaign to effectively erase a religious 
and ethnic minority in a region that, again, is supposed to be legally 
distinct from the rest of China. This effort is being conducted using 
``organs of dictatorship'' and ``absolutely no mercy.''
  The protesters are not the problem. It is Beijing and the Hong Kong 
leadership that must deescalate. The Communist Party must know it will 
hurt them catastrophically if it turns Hong Kong into some 21st century 
version of Tiananmen Square. The United States would not forget it, and 
neither would China's other trading partners all across the world.
  So what can the United States do?
  In September, I worked to add language to the State and Foreign 
Operations appropriations bill to modify the reporting requirements of 
the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act, which, by the way, was my bill back in 
1992. My additions would work to expose the current tools the Chinese 
Communist government is using to subvert the autonomy of Hong Kong and 
to allow the U.S. Government to pay for the legal support for Hong 
Kong's democracy activists.
  One important step to help Hong Kong is for the House and Senate 
Democrats to finally get to ``yes'' on the appropriations process.
  Last week, I had a productive meeting with the senior Senator from 
Florida on the subject of revising and extending the Hong Kong Policy 
Act through new legislation. As I indicated, I authored the original 
bill back in 1992 and have been keenly interested in Hong Kong's status 
for decades. So I appreciate the leadership Senator Rubio and others 
have shown and hope we can find a way to move this important bill. Yet, 
while I support additional legislation, the United States does not need 
to wait for new laws to act further. There are already significant 
tools at the administration's disposal, and I strongly encourage them 
to use them.
  I have been encouraged to hear clear statements on China from key 
members of President Trump's team in recent months. I would encourage 
this President, who has seen Chinese behavior for what it is with a 
clarity that others have lacked, not to shy away from speaking out on 
Hong Kong himself. The world should hear from him directly that the 
United States stands with these brave men and women.
  This administration has rightly understood what prior administrations 
have entirely missed. The old consensus was that economic modernization 
in China would automatically import our values of freedom and human 
dignity into their society. Now, every day reminds us that this simply 
has not happened. Instead, Beijing is using modern technology it has 
obtained through integration with the West to further its political and 
social control over its own population and expand China's reach beyond 
its shores.
  So, rather than focusing solely on trade, I encourage the 
administration to make Hong Kong's autonomy a key topic within our 
bilateral diplomacy. The administration should also take advantage of 
the tools Congress has already provided in Global Magnitsky to target 
the individuals who are responsible for egregious human rights abuses. 
In Xinjiang and Hong Kong, the world is seeing the true face of the 
Communist Party of China.
  The United States has a role to play in standing up for the universal 
principles of human rights, and I am confident we will fulfill it. Yet 
our allies and partners must also ask themselves whether they are 
prepared to live in a world that is being increasingly shaped by those 
who show absolutely no mercy to religious and ethnic minorities and who 
confront peaceful protest with violence.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Ernst). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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