I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2522
To designate the area between the intersections of 18th Street Northwest
and Church Street Northwest, and 18th Street Northwest and P Street
Northwest, in the District of Columbia as ‘‘Jimmy Lai Way’’, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH31, 2025
Mr. S
MITHof New Jersey (for himself, Mr. M OOLENAAR, Mr.
K
RISHNAMOORTHI, and Mr. SUOZZI) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned
A BILL
To designate the area between the intersections of 18th
Street Northwest and Church Street Northwest, and
18th Street Northwest and P Street Northwest, in the
District of Columbia as ‘‘Jimmy Lai Way’’, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. CONDEMNING THE ARBITARY DETENTION OF 3
JIMMY LAI IN HONG KONG. 4
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 5
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(1) Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, a Hong Kong democ-1
racy advocate, media entrepreneur, and a British 2
citizen, has been in prison since December 2020 on 3
multiple fabricated charges, and is serving a sen-4
tence of almost 6 years in prison under politically 5
motivated fraud charges, concurrently serving two 6
other sentences, one for joining a vigil to mark the 7
1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, and another for 8
participating in peaceful protests in 2019. 9
(2) Jimmy Lai is held in solitary confinement 10
for 23 hours and 10 minutes each day, with only 50 11
minutes for restricted exercise and limited human 12
contact or access to daylight. He suffers from diabe-13
tes and has experienced significant weight loss and 14
increasing frailty since being imprisoned. He was de-15
nied access to independent medical care. 16
(3) The Apple Daily newspaper which Jimmy 17
Lai founded and published was forced by the au-18
thorities in Hong Kong to close in June 2021, and 19
the parent company Next Media was delisted from 20
the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under government 21
coercion in January 2023, severely restricting the 22
free flow of news and information that undergirded 23
Hong Kong role as a major financial center. 24
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(4) On August 10, 2020, Lai was charged with 1
‘‘collusion with a foreign country or with external 2
elements to endanger national security’’ under Arti-3
cle 29 of the National Security Law, charges levied 4
in part because of meetings taken with United 5
States officials, including those during the first Ad-6
ministration of President Donald J. Trump (2016– 7
2020) and supporting publicly the policies pursued 8
at that time by the Administration. 9
(5) Jimmy Lai’s meetings with former United 10
States Government officials and public figures, in-11
cluding the Vice President, Secretary of State, 12
Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Con-13
sul-General in Hong Kong have been cited by the 14
prosecution in the court proceedings. 15
(6) Lai trial under the National Security Law 16
began in December 2023 and is ongoing. 17
(7) A group of United Nations experts, being 18
alarmed by multiple and serious violations of Lai’s 19
rights, including the right to a fair trial and access 20
to a lawyer of his own choosing, called for his imme-21
diate release. 22
(8) The minimum sentence required under the 23
National Security Law is 10 years imprisonment, 24
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•HR 2522 IH
and therefore it is possible that Lai could spend the 1
rest of his life behind bars. 2
(9) In 1997, the United Kingdom transferred 3
sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People’s Repub-4
lic of China (PRC) with guaranteed that funda-5
mental rights are protected under both the Sino- 6
British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, which 7
enumerate specific rights and freedoms including 8
those of speech, of the press, and of assembly. 9
(10) The Government of the People’s Republic 10
of China has repeatedly undermined Hong Kong’s 11
autonomy since, in particular since the Umbrella 12
Movement protests in 2014, the mass prodemocracy 13
protests in 2019, and the imposition of the draco-14
nian National Security Law in 2020. 15
(11) Since its enactment in June 2020, the Na-16
tional Security Law, unilaterally passed by the Na-17
tional People’s Congress Standing Committee and 18
enforced by officials in Hong Kong as a pretext to 19
repress legitimate and peaceful speech, assembly, 20
and expression of political opinions. 21
(12) Jimmy Lai stands for the values of democ-22
racy, human rights, respect for the rule of law, reli-23
gious freedom, freedom of expression, and media 24
freedom, and is prosecuted and persecuted by the 25
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PRC’s proxies in Hong Kong solely because of his 1
opinions and activities in pursuit of these values. 2
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—Congress— 3
(1) condemns the unjust imprisonment, mis-4
treatment, and the show trial of United Kingdom 5
citizen Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong; 6
(2) calls upon the Hong Kong authorities to re-7
lease Jimmy Lai immediately and unconditionally 8
and cease prosecuting him and others charged under 9
the National Security Law; 10
(3) reaffirms the importance of the freedom of 11
speech and the right of publishers, journalists, and 12
media workers in Hong Kong and around the world 13
to operate free from intimidation, harassment, re-14
pression, censorship, and fear; 15
(4) recognizes that the severe restrictions on 16
the free flow of news and information from Hong 17
Kong impacts the ability of individuals, corporations, 18
and diplomats to make decisions about travel, invest-19
ments, and political conditions in Hong Kong; 20
(5) urges the Secretary of State and other rel-21
evant Department of State officials to advocate for 22
the release of Jimmy Lai by raising his case with of-23
ficials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Re-24
gion and People’s Republic of China; 25
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(6) urges the Secretary of State to employ the 1
financial sanctions found in the Hong Kong Human 2
Rights and Democracy Act and the Hong Kong Au-3
tonomy Act for Hong Kong officials complicit in the 4
arrest and prosecution of Jimmy Lai and other po-5
litical prisoners in Hong Kong; 6
(7) urges the United Nations High Commis-7
sioner for Human Rights to hold a special session 8
and appoint an impartial and independent United 9
Nations mechanism to evaluate, monitor, and report 10
on a range of human rights violations in the Peo-11
ple’s Republic of China, including the impact of the 12
National Security Law on human rights in Hong 13
Kong, as requested by over United Nations Special 14
Experts in 2020; and 15
(8) urges the Government of the United King-16
dom and all governments that view extension of 17
human rights, the rule of law, and an end to censor-18
ship as critical aspect of their national and economic 19
security to call for all charges against Jimmy Lai to 20
be dropped, the trial to end, and for the immediate 21
and unconditional release of Jimmy Lai. 22
SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF ‘‘JIMMY LAI WAY’’ IN THE DIS-23
TRICT OF COLUMBIA. 24
(a) D
ESIGNATION OFSTREETNAME.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The area between the inter-1
sections of 18th Street Northwest and Church Street 2
Northwest, and 18th Street Northwest and P Street 3
Northwest in the District of Columbia shall be 4
known and designated as ‘‘Jimmy Lai Way’’. 5
(2) R
EFERENCE.—Any reference in a law, map, 6
regulation, document, paper, or other record of the 7
United States to the area referred to in paragraph 8
(1) shall be deemed to include ‘‘Jimmy Lai Way’’. 9
(b) D
ESIGNATION OFADDRESS.— 10
(1) D
ESIGNATION.—The address of 1520 18th 11
Street Northwest in the District of Columbia shall 12
be redesignated as 1 Jimmy Lai Way Northwest. 13
(2) R
EFERENCES.—Any reference in a law, 14
map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of 15
the United States to the address referred to in para-16
graph (1) shall be deemed to be a reference to 1 17
Jimmy Lai Way Northwest. 18
(c) S
IGNS.—The Administrator of General Services 19
shall construct street signs that shall— 20
(1) contain the phrase ‘‘Jimmy Lai Way NW’’; 21
(2) be similar in design to the signs used by the 22
District of Columbia to designate the location of 23
Metro stations; and 24
(3) be placed on— 25
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(A) the parcel of Federal property that is 1
closest to 1 Jimmy Lai Way Northwest (as re-2
designated by subsection (b)(1)) in the District 3
of Columbia; and 4
(B) the street corners of 18th Street 5
Northwest and Church Street Northwest, and 6
18th Street Northwest and P Street Northwest, 7
in the District of Columbia. 8
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING MAIL DELIVERY 9
BY THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE TO 10
1 JIMMY LAI WAY. 11
It is the sense of Congress that the Postmaster Gen-12
eral should recognize any mail which is addressed to the 13
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office at ‘‘1 Jimmy Lai 14
Way’’ in San Francisco, California, or New York, New 15
York, with the appropriate postal codes, and should deliver 16
such mail to— 17
(1) 130 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, 18
California 94104; or 19
(2) 115 East 54th Street, New York, New York 20
10022, as the case may be. 21
Æ
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