OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019

Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 19, 2019
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I sincerely thank my colleagues. This has been a great bipartisan moment on the floor of the Senate for a very important issue.

I particularly thank my colleagues from Florida, Senator Rubio; from Maryland, Senator Cardin; from New Jersey, Senator Menendez; and from Idaho, Senator Risch, as well as all the others who had a hand in this work.

The Senate has just sent a resounding message to the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi that the United States stands with the democratic protestors in Hong Kong. The bipartisan legislation, with the great help of the chair and ranking members of the Foreign Relations Committee, will safeguard Hong Kong's democracy and autonomy and hold accountable those responsible for any human rights abuses in Hong Kong. The bipartisan legislation that will soon be offered by the Senators from Oregon and Texas will make sure that U.S. companies don't sell riot equipment to Hong Kong.

We have sent a message to President Xi: Your suppression of freedom, whether in Hong Kong, in northwest China, or anywhere else, will not stand. You cannot be a great leader and you cannot be a great country when you oppose freedom, when you are so brutal to the people of Hong Kong, young and old, who are protesting, when you are so brutal to the Uighurs in northwest China, and when China is censored so that Chinese people can't get the truth. History has shown that that always fails, President Xi--always fails.

China has taken dramatic steps backward in the curtailment of freedom.

As my colleagues well know, the protests in Hong Kong have now taken an ominous turn. The Hong Kong police--no doubt at the behest of the Communist Party in Beijing--have undertaken an increasingly violent crackdown on student protesters. As the ruling party in Beijing continues to flout Hong Kong's judicial independence while perpetrating a brutal suppression of minority groups from one end of China to the other, Americans' support for the democratic rights of Hong Kong citizenry is paramount.

To the people of China: We stand with you in freedom.

To the kids in Hong Kong, the students and the adults: We stand with you.

To the Uighurs who simply want to practice their religion: We stand with you.

Freedom will prevail, and the Chinese system will either change or fail.

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