Marking the 1000th Day of Jimmy Lai's Imprisonment By the Chinese Government

Floor Speech

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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, this week marked the one thousandth day of imprisonment of one of Hong Kong's 1,648 political prisoners: Jimmy Lai, a hugely successful businessman, owner of Hong Kong's major newspaper, and a freedom fighter for the people of Hong Kong. His ``crimes'' that have landed him in a maximum-security prison at age 75? Supporting pro-democracy protests and publishing the truth about the Chinese Communist Party's creeping authoritarian takeover of Hong Kong.

I have begun the process of adopting his case as a ``prisoner of conscience'' with the Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights and I urge all colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, to adopt a political prisoner, a religious prisoner or some other prisoner of conscience in this time of terrifying global crackdown on human rights and free expression.

Jimmy Lai recognized that a free press that reports the facts is essential to democracy and a free society. He founded one of Hong Kong's most reputable papers in 1991, Apple Daily, in reference to the Garden of Eden's fruit of knowledge. One of the paper's original mottos was ``an apple a day keeps the liars away.'' Jimmy Lai's newspaper continued to report the facts as Hong Kong citizens from all walks of life--led by thousands of courageous young people--demonstrated for their freedom and against Beijing's repressive ``National Security Law'' in 2019.

It is for this principled defense of truth and common sense in a civil society that Mr. Lai has been unjustly detained by China's authoritarian expansion into the free city of Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong Democracy Council, a human rights organization, Jimmy Lai is one of 1,648 Hong Kongers who are political prisoners today. This staggering number--reached after just four years--puts the once-free Hong Kong on the same plane as countries like Belarus and Myanmar. Everyday Hong Kongers who dared to dream of a democratic future are instead languishing in detention. They await trial and sentencing before a hyper-politicized judiciary executing a twisted facsimile of Hong Kong's traditionally independent, common law court system.

Jimmy Lai was first arrested in August 2020 as one of the first targets of the repressive ''National Security Law'' imposed by mainland China. He has since been arrested numerous times, charged with everything from collusion with foreign powers, to so-called ``unauthorized assembly,'' to alleged fraud. Many of his fellow political prisoners in Hong Kong face charges that are similar affronts to a free society.

The reactionary movement against democracy is global, which is why our movement to defend democracy is also global. I salute the courageous activists, like Jimmy Lai, who refuse to bend to the brutal forces of fear and authoritarianism. Whether they live in Washington, D.C. or Hong Kong or Moscow or Kyiv, everyone should have the right to determine their own destiny. I stand here today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in solidarity with Jimmy Lai as he marks his one thousand and first day as a political prisoner. Please join me in acting in solidarity with Jimmy Lai and demand his immediate release and freedom from the Chinese government.

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