[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
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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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