[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26257]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               ON THE RELEASE OF U.S. CITIZEN FUMING FONG

  (Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, for both sides of the aisle, Monday 
evening was a great time for New Jersey and America. I was at the 
Newark Airport at 11 p.m. when Fuming Fong, an American citizen who has 
been held in prison by the Chinese for 3 years, was finally released 
and returned home.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the State Department, most notably 
Assistant Secretary Kelly, and Will Laidlaw from the U.S. embassy in 
Beijing who came with Fuming Fong to join his family here in the United 
States. He is from West Orange, New Jersey, which is part of my 
district.
  Fuming Fong is an electrical engineer. He was charged in a universal 
charge of bribery, which so many people are in Chinese prisons for. He 
was detained by the Chinese Government in February of 2000. After 
meeting with the Fong family in August 2001, I made the decision that 
this was something we could all get on board with, and so I went to 
China in January and the end of this year to plead with the Chinese 
Government, indeed, the President himself.
  Mr. Speaker, any time that we begin to take freedom for granted, I 
would like my colleagues here in this House to think of Fuming Fong and 
what he went through and how beautiful this country of America is.

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