[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 104 (Thursday, June 4, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S2710]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Tiananmen Square

  Mr. COTTON. Madam President, today is the 31st anniversary of the 
Tiananmen Square massacre, when thousands of peaceful students asking 
for their freedom were gunned down by Chinese Communist tanks and 
troops. Because of Beijing's relentless censorship and control over 
information, we never learned the true death toll of that dark day, but 
it is certain that thousands of peaceful protesters were murdered in 
the streets.
  Beijing's savagery was exposed during that massacre, reminding the 
West that this was the same, unreconstructed Communist Party that 
killed millions--tens of millions--of its own people without batting an 
eye in Mao's Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward. A tiger never 
changes its stripes.
  Now the Chinese Communist Party is threatening another atrocity in 
Hong Kong, a city whose traditions and freedoms it once promised to 
respect--but that it, secretly and increasingly openly, loathes as a 
gleaming repudiation of Chinese Communism.
  Last year, an extradition bill that could have allowed Hong Kong 
residents to be ``disappeared'' to mainland China sparked mass 
protests. Hong Kong residents flooded the streets to display their 
disapproval and protect their freedoms.
  These are not anarchists trying to tear down the law--as the Chinese 
Communist Party's shrill organs falsely claim--but they were free 
citizens fighting to preserve the rule of law they love so much, 
against a Communist power that knows no law above itself. They are 
fighting for the very same freedoms we enjoy in the United States: the 
freedom of religion, speech, and assembly; private property; the rule 
of law.
  The Hong Kong protesters won the battle over the extradition bill, 
but the war for Hongkongers' freedom isn't over. While the world has 
been distracted by the coronavirus pandemic and other upheavals, the 
Chinese Communist Party has seized the opportunity to finally enact 
what it euphemistically calls a national security law but what is, in 
reality, an attempt to extinguish Hong Kong freedom--a law that will 
allow Beijing's agents to take broad action against Hong Kong 
residents, including those who protested against the extradition bill 
last year.
  Seven million residents of Hong Kong now face the very real 
possibility of losing their freedom and possibly their lives. Political 
dissidents risk being jailed arbitrarily--or worse. Hundreds of 
thousands of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, and other religious 
minorities risk being driven underground like their brethren on the 
Chinese mainland--or perhaps put in a gulag of concentration camps like 
the Uighurs in China's Xinjiang Province.
  The free world cannot stand by while the Chinese Communist Party sets 
fire to the venerable laws and freedoms of Hong Kong. Already the 
administration is moving to revoke Hong Kong's special trade status, 
which has allowed Chinese Communist Mandarins to get rich off a free 
economic system while denying those very freedoms for more than 1 
billion of their subjects on the mainland.
  And our great ally, the United Kingdom, has announced it will extend 
visas to 3 million Hongkongers--many of whom took part in last year's 
pro-democracy protests so that they can escape the Chinese Communist 
Party. I highly commend Prime Minister Boris Johnson for striking this 
bold blow for freedom, but the United States can also do more.
  Today, I call upon the administration to prioritize the admission of 
persecuted Hongkongers to the United States through the U.S. Refugee 
Admissions Program. In coordination with our allies, this action could 
save these brave Hongkongers from a horrific fate under authoritarian 
Communist rule.
  While this refugee program has been abused in recent years, it has 
always served the noble purpose of allowing those who are truly 
oppressed by their governments to immigrate safely to the free world. 
Now it can be used again in this worthy cause to help noble Hongkongers 
flee the grasp of the Chinese Communist Party before it is too late.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.