[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 112 (Wednesday, June 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3047-S3049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Requests--S. Res. 596 and S. 3798
Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I am here today to talk about the death of
democracy, and I am here today to talk about how we can stand with
those who are fighting to preserve it.
In the United States, the death of democracy might seem like a
distant and unfamiliar thing. We study examples in the history books.
We read of nations and peoples who are forced, through no choice of
their own, to surrender their basic liberties. We remind ourselves of
the need always to stay vigilant, to stay aware, but we are seeing
today the death of democracy unfold in realtime, right before our eyes,
in the city of Hong Kong.
A diverse and global city, rich in culture and arts and commerce and
people, Hong Kong is an outpost of liberty. For decades, under a
special set of laws and protections, it has stood as a haven of
liberty--a beacon, a light--but I fear that light is fast dimming,
nearly overcome by darkness and by tyranny.
This body, along with all free peoples, has a special responsibility
to take a stand for the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong. We must
take a stand to ensure that the light of Hong Kong does not go out
forever. We must take a stand to ensure that this outpost of liberty
lives on. We must take
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a stand so that the flame of freedom is not extinguished forever by the
Chinese Communist Party.
On May 28, Beijing announced that it would adopt legislation that
will essentially jettison the basic law under which Hong Kong has been
governed for decades. It is legislation that will trample upon
Beijing's own treaty commitments in the 1984 Sino-British Treaty,
legislation--they call it legislation, but, of course, what it really
is is just fiat, fiat by the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing--that
will strip Hong Kong of its basic liberties, strip Hongkongers of the
right to freedom of speech, strip Hongkongers of the right to
peacefully assemble, strip Hongkongers of their rights to redress in
fair and open courts with some process of law.
Beijing wants to deny the people of Hong Kong all of these things
because liberty is a threat to the authoritarian Communist regime in
Beijing. Oh, it fears that more than anything else. It fears the
people. It fears the will of the people, and it fears the liberty of
the people. It is trying to destroy the last outpost of liberty in its
nation--the great city of Hong Kong.
Now, we were promised that it would not come to this. We were told,
when China joined the World Trade Organization, when China was given
permanent normal trade relations, when China was ushered into this so-
called community of nations, that it would liberalize China and that it
would make the Chinese Communist Party more moderate. Well, I think we
know how that has turned out.
After decades now of stealing our jobs, decades of ripping us off in
trade, decades of impoverishing our own workers here in this country
while stealing our intellectual property, decades of building its
military on the backs of our middle class and our working people, now
Beijing wants to dominate its region, snuff out Hong Kong, and then
turn to the rest of the world.
We have to send a clear message that we will not stand idly by. We
will not allow Beijing to erase the history of its misdeeds. We will
not allow it to erase the history of Tiananmen. We will not allow it to
erase the history of the concentration camps it is running at this very
moment, and we will not stand by while it destroys the liberties and
the rights of the people of Hong Kong.
It is time now for this body to stand and send a clear message that
will call the other free nations to stand in support of the values we
hold dear, in support of all that this country stands for, in support
of the liberty of the people of Hong Kong.
I yield to my colleague Senator Blackburn of Tennessee.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Missouri for
the work he is doing as he brings forward this resolution for Hong
Kong.
I want to take just a couple of minutes to remind those of us who
have been watching this issue and have concerns about this resolution
that the aggression we are seeing now is not something that is new.
This is newly realized.
As those of us who have followed this and followed the dealings of
the Chinese Communist Party know, the newest so-called national
security law is nothing more than the party's response to the threat
that uprisings and protests in Hong Kong pose to its hold on power. It
just can't stand it. It watches the freedom fighters in Hong Kong, and
it thinks: What if it gets away from us?
Hong Kong is our financial center, and it is watching what is
happening in the rest of the free world. Australia, Canada, and the UK
all have signed the official joint statement with us, the United States
of America, expressing deep concern with this so-called national
security legislation, which really is the Communist Party's way of
stepping into Hong Kong and usurping the power--of going back on a deal
it made long ago.
Beijing claims that it needs this law to control against ``subversion
of state power,'' but, again, anyone who has been paying attention
knows that it will use this standard as an excuse to redefine
``subversion'' and engage in the violent repression of speech,
association, and movement--with no cause and without mercy. This is how
it has kept control. It is a pattern, and there is no reason to believe
it is going to do anything differently this time around.
Over the past year, we have seen how willing Chinese officials are to
trample every international norm, every law, every principle of
diplomacy to force their hand on their own people and on other
countries. Now, against all odds, forces in Beijing have found a way to
make life in Hong Kong more dangerous than it has been by
delegitimizing peaceful and nonviolent protests and journalism that
doesn't mirror party propaganda. They have seized even more hope away
from the freedom fighters who have captured the world's attention in
their stunning displays of defiance.
It is really quite a battle that is taking place, and I thank my
colleagues for the good work they have done in standing against the
Chinese Communist Party's aggression.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for her
tremendous work on this issue. I thank her for her leadership and for
her strong stance in favor of the people of Hong Kong and their basic
liberties, guaranteed to them by the international treaty commitments
that Beijing has ascribed to, that Beijing has signed up for, and that
it now seeks to violate with impunity.
Let's be clear about what Beijing wants. It says that Hong Kong is
its plaything to do with as it chooses. That is not the case. Beijing
has undertaken internationally binding commitments, agreements, by
which it has agreed to protect and honor the basic liberties of the
people of Hong Kong, and it is those commitments that it is seeking to
violate today with impunity. It is those commitments Beijing is seeking
to wriggle out of just as it has, time and again, violated its
agreements with this country, just as it has, time and again, cheated
on its obligations to Americans.
That is another reason I am calling on the Senate today to pass a
resolution that makes it our position that China has gone too far. We
must go on record and tell the world that this new national security
law--this fiat that has been issued by Beijing--is a violation of what
Beijing has committed to. It is a violation of the fundamental
liberties of the people of Hong Kong, and nothing less than freedom is
at stake.
My resolution also calls on this administration to use every
diplomatic means available to stay Beijing's hand. The President has
already begun the process of downgrading Hong Kong's special trade
status. We must build on that effort now by rallying nations--the free
nations of the world--to pressure China to back down from their attempt
to strip away the basic liberties of the people of Hong Kong because,
in the end, Hong Kong's struggle is the struggle of all free people.
Do you know what I said when I had the chance to visit the city, see
the protests, and be out on the streets myself last fall? That
sometimes the fate of one city defines the struggle of a generation. In
the 1960s, that city was Berlin. Today, that city is Hong Kong, and it
is time for this body to take a stand.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Blackburn). The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, as if in legislative session, I now ask
unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged
from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 596. I
further ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the
preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered
made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, I am reserving the right to object.
As I listened carefully to the statements made by the Senator from
Missouri about the aggressive and unacceptable conduct of the
Government of
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China, or Hong Kong, he is absolutely right, I believe, that it is
important that the U.S. Senate--in fact, that the U.S. Government take
action strongly expressing our disapproval but also take action to
actually show the Government of China that there will be a price to pay
if they continue down that path of aggression and try to snuff out the
freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.
That is why, immediately after the Government of China announced its
intentions to move in that direction, we introduced a bipartisan bill.
Senator Toomey introduced the bill. I am proud to join him as a
cosponsor. We have other Democratic and Republican cosponsors to the
bill. I am pleased to see the Senator from North Dakota on the floor.
He is a cosponsor of that bill. It is called the Hong Kong Autonomy
Act.
In addition to expressing the sentiments that the Senator from
Missouri lays out in his Senate resolution, it proposes that we take
action as the Government of the United States. While we have heard
statements from Secretary Pompeo, the reality is that this
administration has not exercised any of its existing sanctions
authority that it could take to express our strong disapproval of the
actions the Government of China is proposing to take with respect to
Hong Kong. That is why we introduced the bipartisan bill, again,
outlining all the transgressions the Senator from Missouri talked about
but actually doing something about them by requiring that the
administration impose sanctions on individuals in the Government of
China who are undermining the rights of the people in Hong Kong and
requiring them to impose sanctions on Chinese Government entities that
are depriving the people of Hong Kong of the freedoms the Senator
talked about. It goes beyond that. It says that any bank that is aiding
and abetting the Government of China in snuffing out the rights of the
people of Hong Kong can be subject to sanctions.
Now, I know the Senator from Missouri knows the Government of China
well enough to understand that the Senate passing a resolution and
leaving it at that is not going to change their conduct. I think the
Senator is enough of a student of the Chinese Communist Government to
recognize that. So that is exactly why we introduced this bipartisan
legislation because if we want to have any chance of influencing the
conduct of the Government of China, we have to make it clear there will
be a price to pay. There is no price to be paid in the Senate passing a
resolution. It is a nice statement. I support the statement, but I am
also a little tired of this body passing a lot of resolutions,
sometimes thinking we have actually done something when we haven't
changed a thing.
That is why I am here on the Senate floor to ask my colleagues to
support what is a bipartisan bill that actually has some teeth in it.
It is not just a statement from the Senate. It is an action that will
be taken by the Senate and the House and, hopefully, by this
administration, which apparently doesn't want to take action. We have
heard them already express concerns about this legislation.
I would hope that if our colleagues on the Republican side feel as
strongly as the Senator from Missouri does, they would want to back up
those words with legislative action, and they would want to back up
those words with something that is more meaningful and something that
tells the Government of China that we stand together in making sure
there is a price to pay.
I know the Senator from Missouri has worked on other bills making it
clear that we do not find acceptable all sorts of conduct by China. I
have as well--bipartisan bills. I hope we can join together right here,
right now, to support the expression--the statement--that the Senator
from Missouri has brought to us but also go beyond that and send a
signal right now that we, the U.S. Senate, want to be joined by the
House and by the administration in putting action behind those words.
That is exactly what the bipartisan Hong Kong Autonomy Act does.
So I would respectfully request that the Senator from Missouri modify
his request to ask, in addition to what he proposed, that the Banking
Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3798, a bill
to impose sanctions with respect to foreign persons involved in the
erosion of certain obligations of China with respect to Hong Kong; that
the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be
considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no
intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Missouri so modify his
request?
Mr. HAWLEY. I do.
Is there objection to the request as modified?
Mr. CRAMER. Madam President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. CRAMER. Madam President, reserving the right to object, it is
clear to the five or six of us Senators who are in the room right now
that there is passion, that it is an important issue, and that there
may even be unanimous consent in the hearts and minds, certainly, of
the Senators with regard to both the spirit of the resolution and
perhaps the letter of the bill, of which I am a cosponsor, that has
been introduced by UC by the Senator from Maryland.
I think it is clear that we all have the same objective here, but I
also know there is just a handful of us in the room talking about a
very important issue that may seem simple but we know is very
complicated.
We know that the administration has provided both technical and
policy views on the bill, and I think with such an important issue that
so many of us care deeply about, it deserves a little more discussion
and debate than just to come to the floor with a UC.
I am committed, as a member of the Banking Committee and as a
cosponsor, to working with both committees and with the chairs of both
committees of jurisdiction over the resolution and the bill to make
sure we get it right as opposed to this UC.
I want to work hard. I know you all do. I think we should work at
looking at the comments from the administration, working together as
Republicans and Democrats who care about this country, care about the
people of Hong Kong, and who are concerned about the behavior of China.
So I object to adoption of this bill before we have a chance to do
exactly that.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Minnesota