    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 38 (Wednesday, February 26, 2025)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S1400-S1401]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                             SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

                                     ______

     SENATE RESOLUTION 98--CONDEMNING BEIJING'S DESTRUCTION OF HONG KONG'S
                           DEMOCRACY AND RULE OF LAW

      Mr. RISCH (for himself and Mrs. Shaheen) submitted the following
    resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                                   S. Res. 98

           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 2014 Umbrella
         Movement protesting Beijing's attempt to reform Hong Kong's
         electoral system, and the 2019-2020 protests, which opposed
         the Hong Kong government's decision to implement an
         extradition law that would have subjected Hong Kongers to
         prosecution in mainland China;
           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 poorly defined criminal statute with
         extraterritorial reach that includes overly broad charges 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 guaranteed to Hong Kong 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, in March 2024, the Hong Kong government enacted
         national security legislation to implement Article 23 of the
         Basic Law, officially called the ``Safeguarding National
         Security Ordinance'' and also referred to as the ``Article 23
         Ordinance'', which expanded the number of broadly defined
         national security criminal offenses to include, among other
         things, ``external interference'' and ``sabotage'', weakened
         legal protections for suspects accused of national security
         offenses, authorized new punitive measures targeting Hong
         Kong citizens and non-citizens overseas, and created risks
         for Hong Kong residents who interact with foreigners;
           Whereas nearly 300 people have been arrested under the Hong
         Kong national security law and the Article 23 Ordinance;
           Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
         uses the Hong Kong national security law and the Article 23
         Ordinance to harass, target, and threaten non-Hong Kong
         citizens and those outside of Hong Kong, and has become a
         significant perpetrator of transnational repression,
         including by posting cash bounties for democracy activists
         living in self-exile outside of Hong Kong;
           Whereas, on November 19, 2024, the Hong Kong government
         sentenced a group of pro-democracy activists, journalists,
         and former lawmakers commonly known as the ``Hong Kong 47''
         to jail terms ranging between 4 and 10 years as a
         demonstration of the Hong Kong government's willingness to
         intimidate and persecute its political opponents;
           Whereas, Mr. Jimmy Lai, a 77-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, one of the highest profile cases under
         the 2020 ``national security law'', has been imprisoned in
         solitary confinement with inadequate medical treatment since
         December 31, 2020;
           Whereas 5 Special Rapporteurs, as well as the United
         Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary
         Detention, have found that Mr. Lai is unlawfully and
         arbitrarily detained and have called for his immediate and
         unconditional release;
           Whereas the trial of Mr. Lai, which began on December 18,
         2023, has been delayed repeatedly;
           Whereas international legal experts at the United Nations
         have expressed concerns regarding prosecutors' use of witness
         testimony against Mr. Lai that may have been obtained through
         torture, Hong Kong authorities' interference with the
         independence of the judiciary throughout the case, and
         harassment and intimidation of Mr. Lai's lawyers, undermining
         his right to a defense;
           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 has increasingly become a hub for the
         transshipment of export-controlled goods and sanctions
         evasion relating to the People's Republic of China, the
         Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Russian
         Federation, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, directly
         supporting Russia's defense industrial base and enabling its
         continuing war of aggression against Ukraine;
           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 impose sanctions

    [[Page S1401]]

         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'', the Hong Kong
         government's ``Safeguarding National Security Ordinance'',
         and related abuses of internationally recognized human
         rights;
             (2) urges all governments that value democracy or
         autonomy to hold the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong
         Kong authorities accountable for their 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 against Hong Kongers and the expansion of Hong Kong's
         national security regime that destroys the rule of law and
         undermines citizens' rights in Hong Kong;
             (5) calls upon the Hong Kong government to immediately
         drop all sedition, national security law, and Article 23-
         related charges and free all defendants immediately,
         including Jimmy Lai;
             (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, legal, and judicial 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 and appropriate 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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