[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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