[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 122 (Thursday, July 2, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4198-S4199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Hong Kong Autonomy Act

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, what is happening at this moment in Hong 
Kong is a tragedy, a crime, an affront to the civilized world. In a 
year in which so much has happened, we may look back in the near future 
and view this moment in Hong Kong as the single biggest moment of the 
year. It is not getting enough attention, though, because the Communist 
Party is using the pandemic as cover for its crimes against Hong Kong.
  Under the cover of night, the Communist Party's puppets in Hong Kong 
have enacted a security law that threatens to sweep aside the 
traditions and freedoms that have made that city such a special place. 
While the Chinese Communist Party hasn't yet rolled in tanks, as it did 
in Tiananmen Square, the effects of this law are no less chilling to 
democracy.
  The security law imposes broad prohibitions on what it calls 
subversive activities. What kinds of activities? Activities like waving 
flags or chanting a slogan like ``Hong Kong independence'' or 
``Hongkongers, build a nation.'' In other words, the security law 
criminalizes basic elements of peaceful protests and democratic change 
that Hongkongers have used for years and that set them apart from their 
fellow citizens on the mainland.
  The new law also erodes the rights of the accused that are essential 
to a fair legal system. The Chinese Communist Party isn't interested in 
rights or fairness. It is interested in control--total control--and 
this law exerts total control over the people of Hong Kong.
  Under the new law, protesters accused of such vague crimes as 
separatism and collusion can be smuggled away to mainland China to be 
tried in Communist courts. The so-called crimes don't even have to be 
committed in Hong Kong in order to be punished; the new law could 
encompass expatriates with foreign citizenship living overseas--even 
here in America. So simply meeting with a U.S. Senator, like me or 
Senator McConnell or Senator Schumer or Senator Van Hollen, could land 
a Hongkonger in prison for a lifetime. The China Communist Party thus 
is extending its iron rule beyond its own shores to our free soil.
  Those convicted under the new law could face life imprisonment, 
alongside the many underground church leaders, Uighurs, Tibetans, Falun 
Gong members, and other persecuted individuals the Chinese Communist 
Party has already ``disappeared.''
  Indeed, the crackdown is already underway. The Chinese Communist 
Party's agents in Hong Kong rounded up as many as 300 protesters this 
week for what it called unlawful assembly. Some of the protesters were 
arrested under the supposed authority of the new security law. Their 
fate at this moment is unknown.
  The takeover of Hong Kong may seem like an event far away, especially 
when we have so many problems at home. But the same could have been 
said after the Second World War when Stalin and the Soviet secret 
police dropped an Iron Curtain over Eastern Europe. Czechoslovakia and 
Poland were far away, too, but the brutal repression of their people 
showed the world what was at stake in the titanic struggle between 
freedom and communism.
  We face the same sort of titanic struggle today, and it is not 
limited to Hong Kong. All across the periphery,

[[Page S4199]]

the Chinese Communist Party is acting aggressively. It has essentially 
invaded India and killed 20 Indian soldiers. In the South China Sea, it 
has attacked or otherwise threatened vessels from Vietnam, Malaysia, 
and the Philippines and has repeatedly and increasingly encroached on 
Taiwanese and Japanese airspace.
  But in Hong Kong, the security law proves most clearly that the 
Chinese Communist Party will not abide by its commitments, whether to 
its own people or to foreign nations. Through actions this week, 
Beijing has effectively torn up the joint declaration it made with 
Britain to govern the peaceful handover of Hong Kong just as cynically 
as China has broken its commitments to the United States, to the World 
Trade Organization, to the World Health Organization, and others.
  And, of course, this law exposes once again the hideous nature of 
communism, which is so paranoid and insecure it can't tolerate even a 
tiny outpost of freedom within its borders. No wonder. Freedom is an 
attractive, precious, and contagious thing. The way of life enjoyed by 
the citizens of Hong Kong could give the wrong ideas to the 1 billion 
Chinese yearning for freedom elsewhere in the country. Nothing could be 
more threatening to the Chinese Communist Party's rule.
  Now the party has begun the takeover that Hongkongers have long 
feared. Those of us with freedom to speak and act on their behalf must 
do so now, as one of the great citadels of Asia slips into the 
totalitarian darkness. While dark days may lie ahead for Hong Kong, one 
day the future will return the sunny highlands of freedom to that small 
citadel
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.