[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 48 (Wednesday, March 15, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S802-S803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 106--CONDEMNING BEIJING'S DESTRUCTION OF HONG KONG'S 
                       DEMOCRACY AND RULE OF LAW

  Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Blumenthal, 
Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Young, Mr. Ossoff, Mr. Graham, Ms. 
Duckworth, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Crapo, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. 
Rubio, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Coons, Mr. Daines, Mr. Lujan, Mr. 
Moran, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Peters, 
Mr. Lankford, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Sullivan, Ms. Hassan, Ms. Murkowski, 
Ms. Smith, Mr. Braun, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Hoeven, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Hawley, 
Mr. Murphy, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, and Mr. Booker) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 106

       Whereas, in 1997, Great Britain handed Hong Kong over to 
     Chinese rule under guarantees that Hong Kong would become a 
     Special Administrative Region under the ``one country, two 
     systems'' principle, pursuant to which Hong Kong's Basic Law 
     would apply and would enshrine ``fundamental rights'' of Hong 
     Kong residents and a political structure, including an 
     independent judiciary, the right to vote, and freedoms of 
     assembly and speech, among others;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     (PRC) has repeatedly undermined Hong Kong's autonomy since 
     the 1997 handover, including actions which resulted in 
     political protests in Hong Kong, including the Umbrella 
     Movement in 2014, a protest against Beijing's attempt to 
     reform Hong Kong's electoral system, and the 2019-2020 
     protests, which opposed the Hong Kong government's attempt to 
     implement an extradition law that would have subjected Hong 
     Kongers to prosecution in mainland China;

[[Page S803]]

       Whereas the Hong Kong Police Force used excessive force to 
     try to quell the 2019-2020 protestors, many of whom were 
     under the age of 30;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     responded to these protests by passing and implementing the 
     Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding 
     National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative 
     Region (commonly referred to as the ``Hong Kong national 
     security law'') a vaguely defined criminal statute that 
     includes overly broad charges and extraterritorial reach to 
     punish people for exercising their fundamental rights and 
     freedoms;
       Whereas, since its enactment in June 2020, this law has 
     been used by the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     as a pretext to crack down on legitimate and peaceful 
     expression, including the exercise of freedoms of assembly, 
     speech, and religious belief provided for under the Basic 
     Law, to replace the Hong Kong legislature with individuals 
     loyal to the Chinese Communist Party, and to pass new 
     immigration laws that subject Hong Kong citizens and 
     residents, as well as PRC nationals and foreign nationals, to 
     exit bans in Hong Kong similar to those implemented in 
     mainland China;
       Whereas more than 200 people have been arrested under the 
     Hong Kong national security law since its enactment in June 
     2020;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China is 
     using the Hong Kong national security law to harass, target, 
     and threaten non-Hong Kong citizens and those outside of Hong 
     Kong, based upon for unsubstantiated and vague allegations of 
     ``endangering national security'';
       Whereas, Jimmy Lai, a 75-year-old Hong Kong pro-democracy 
     advocate and media entrepreneur, has been targeted and 
     persecuted for decades, most recently through multiple 
     prosecutions, including related to exercising his rights to 
     freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, his 
     sentencing to over five years in prison under politically 
     motivated fraud charges and the seizure of his multimillion 
     dollar independent media organization Apple Daily by the Hong 
     Kong authorities;
       Whereas Mr. Lai is now one of the highest profile cases 
     facing trial under vaguely-defined charges under the so-
     called ``national security law'';
       Whereas, Cardinal Zen, a 90-year-old Roman Catholic 
     cardinal, and five other colleagues were found guilty of 
     politically motivated charges related to failing to register 
     a humanitarian fund that helped anti-government protesters;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China's 
     undermining of democracy in Hong Kong has ramifications for 
     the international order, including with regard to the future 
     of Taiwan;
       Whereas the Hong Kong government has conducted a public 
     relations campaign to convince global business leaders that 
     Hong Kong remains a critical and attractive international 
     financial center, while simultaneously undermining the 
     independence of institutions that encouraged its growth over 
     the past several decades;
       Whereas Hong Kong still maintains a separate voting share 
     from the People's Republic of China at many multilateral 
     organizations--including the Asia Pacific Economic 
     Cooperation forum, the Financial Action Task Force, the 
     International Olympic Committee, and the World Trade 
     Organization--effectively doubling the People's Republic of 
     China's voting power at these critical institutions; and
       Whereas the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act 
     (Public Law 116-76; 22 U.S.C. 5701 note), signed into law in 
     November 2019, requires the President to use sanctions to 
     promote accountability for those responsible for certain 
     conduct that undermines fundamental freedoms and autonomy in 
     Hong Kong: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) condemns the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China's ``Hong Kong national security law'' and related human 
     rights abuses;
       (2) urges all governments that value democracy or autonomy 
     to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its 
     destruction of Hong Kong's autonomy, rule of law, and 
     freedoms;
       (3) supports the people of Hong Kong as they fight to 
     exercise fundamental rights and freedoms, as enumerated by--
       (A) the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United 
     Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question 
     of Hong Kong, done at Beijing December 19, 1984;
       (B) the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
     Rights, done at New York December 19, 1966; and
       (C) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, done at 
     Paris December 10, 1948;
       (4) condemns the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China's practice of bringing false and politically motivated 
     charges, such as fraud, against Hong Kongers in order to 
     tarnish their reputations in advance of their national 
     security law trials;
       (5) calls upon the Hong Kong government to immediately drop 
     all sedition and national security law-related charges and 
     free all defendants immediately, including Jimmy Lai and 
     Cardinal Zen;
       (6) expresses extreme concern about the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China' state-directed theft of Apple 
     Daily, and holds that Hong Kong no longer has credibility as 
     an international business center due to the erosion of the 
     regulatory and legal environments that have promoted its 
     economic growth for decades;
       (7) encourages the United States Government and other 
     governments to take steps at multilateral institutions to 
     ensure that voting procedures recognize that there is no 
     longer a meaningful distinction between Hong Kong and 
     mainland China; and
       (8) urges the United States Government to use all available 
     tools, including those authorized by the Hong Kong Human 
     Rights and Democracy Act, in response to the Government of 
     the People's Republic of China's actions in Hong Kong.

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