III
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. RES. 98
Condemning Beijing’s destruction of Hong Kong’s democracy and rule of
law.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY26, 2025
Mr. R
ISCH(for himself and Mrs. SHAHEEN) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
RESOLUTION
Condemning Beijing’s destruction of Hong Kong’s democracy
and rule of law.
Whereas, in 1997, Great Britain handed Hong Kong over to
Chinese rule under guarantees that Hong Kong would be-
come a Special Administrative Region under the ‘‘one
country, two systems’’ principle, pursuant to which Hong
Kong’s Basic Law would apply and would enshrine ‘‘fun-
damental rights’’ of Hong Kong residents and a political
structure, including an independent judiciary, the right to
vote, and freedoms of assembly and speech, among oth-
ers;
Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China
(PRC) has repeatedly undermined Hong Kong’s auton-
omy since the 1997 handover, including actions which re-
sulted in political protests in Hong Kong, including the
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2014 Umbrella Movement protesting Beijing’s attempt to
reform Hong Kong’s electoral system, and the 2019–
2020 protests, which opposed the Hong Kong govern-
ment’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 Safe-
guarding 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 Com-
munist 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 en-
acted national security legislation to implement Article 23
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•SRES 98 IS
of the Basic Law, officially called the ‘‘Safeguarding Na-
tional Security Ordinance’’ and also referred to as the
‘‘Article 23 Ordinance’’, which expanded the number of
broadly defined national security criminal offenses to in-
clude, among other things, ‘‘external interference’’ and
‘‘sabotage’’, weakened legal protections for suspects ac-
cused of national security offenses, authorized new puni-
tive measures targeting Hong Kong citizens and non-citi-
zens 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 Or-
dinance;
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 repres-
sion, 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 will-
ingness to intimidate and persecute its political oppo-
nents;
Whereas, Mr. Jimmy Lai, a 77-year-old Hong Kong pro-de-
mocracy advocate and media entrepreneur, has been tar-
geted and persecuted for decades, most recently through
multiple prosecutions, including related to exercising his
rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of
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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 sol-
itary confinement with inadequate medical treatment
since December 31, 2020;
Whereas 5 Special Rapporteurs, as well as the United Na-
tions Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbi-
trary Detention, have found that Mr. Lai is unlawfully
and arbitrarily detained and have called for his imme-
diate 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’ inter-
ference 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 ramifica-
tions 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 inter-
national financial center, while simultaneously under-
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mining 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 Fed-
eration, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, directly sup-
porting 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 Co-
operation 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 to promote accountability for those responsible
for certain conduct that undermines fundamental free-
doms and autonomy in Hong Kong: Now, therefore, be
it
Resolved, That the Senate— 1
(1) condemns the Government of the People’s 2
Republic of China’s ‘‘Hong Kong national security 3
law’’, the Hong Kong government’s ‘‘Safeguarding 4
National Security Ordinance’’, and related abuses of 5
internationally recognized human rights; 6
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(2) urges all governments that value democracy 1
or autonomy to hold the Chinese Communist Party 2
and the Hong Kong authorities accountable for their 3
destruction of Hong Kong’s autonomy, rule of law, 4
and freedoms; 5
(3) supports the people of Hong Kong as they 6
fight to exercise fundamental rights and freedoms, 7
as enumerated by— 8
(A) the Joint Declaration of the Govern-9
ment of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 10
and Northern Ireland and the Government of 11
the People’s Republic of China on the Question 12
of Hong Kong, done at Beijing December 19, 13
1984; 14
(B) the International Covenant on Civil 15
and Political Rights, done at New York Decem-16
ber 19, 1966; and 17
(C) the Universal Declaration of Human 18
Rights, done at Paris December 10, 1948; 19
(4) condemns the Government of the People’s 20
Republic of China’s practice of bringing false and 21
politically motivated charges against Hong Kongers 22
and the expansion of Hong Kong’s national security 23
regime that destroys the rule of law and undermines 24
citizens’ rights in Hong Kong; 25
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(5) calls upon the Hong Kong government to 1
immediately drop all sedition, national security law, 2
and Article 23-related charges and free all defend-3
ants immediately, including Jimmy Lai; 4
(6) expresses extreme concern about the Gov-5
ernment of the People’s Republic of China’ state-di-6
rected theft of Apple Daily, and holds that Hong 7
Kong no longer has credibility as an international 8
business center due to the erosion of the regulatory, 9
legal, and judicial environments that have promoted 10
its economic growth for decades; 11
(7) encourages the United States Government 12
and other governments to take steps at multilateral 13
institutions to ensure that voting procedures recog-14
nize that there is no longer a meaningful distinction 15
between Hong Kong and mainland China; and 16
(8) urges the United States Government to use 17
all available and appropriate tools, including those 18
authorized by the Hong Kong Human Rights and 19
Democracy Act, in response to the Government of 20
the People’s Republic of China’s actions in Hong 21
Kong. 22
Æ
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