Committee News
The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation’s Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, Frances Hui, met with Congressman Mike Gallagher before he launched the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) first hearing.
Frances Hui, the CFHK Foundation’s Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, spoke to Congress about their unique opportunity to hold the CCP accountable for their threat to Hong Kong’s most basic freedoms. Ms Hui stated, “It was never too young for me to start (my activism). And it is never too late for the US to step up its efforts to safeguard freedom in Hong Kong and hold the CCP authorities to account.”
The CFHK Foundation's President, Mark Clifford, met with Congressman Mike Gallagher, Congressman Ritchie Torres, and Congressman Neal Dunn at a rally in New York City's Chinatown against the CCP's secret police stations in the US.
Mark Clifford, the CFHK Foundation's President, spoke at the University of California Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies on Hong Kong and human rights. He emphasised the Hong Kong authorities’ increasing threat to Hong Kong’s business community, highlighted the six Hong Kongers nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and called for the release of the Hong Kong 47.
The Atlantic Council will launch a report on March 7 that assesses risks to Hong Kong’s business environment. The CFHK Foundation welcomes the Atlantic Council’s research on this important topic. Register here.
Jimmy Lai
The CFHK Foundation agrees with the Hong Kong Free Press that the Hong Kong government “continues to exhibit a strange and disproportionate preoccupation with the legal proceedings against Jimmy Lai”.
Hong Kong
Choi Wing-kit and Chris Chan Yan-tsun, two Hong Kongers who have been charged for “subverting state power” under the National Security Law, are appealing their five-year jail sentences, reported the Hong Kong Free Press.
The South China Morning Post reported that Hong Kong’s national anthem was played at the opening of Sarajevo’s Ice Hockey Championship. The Hong Kong authorities’ hyper-sensitive reaction to this “mistake” reveals their continued violation of the freedoms of speech and expression on the international stage.
UK-China Relations
James Cleverly named Jimmy Lai at the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting as he called out the CCP’s shuttering of Hong Kong’s independent media outlets. The British government should continue to place pressure on Hong Kong authorities for their arrest of innocent individuals under the National Security Law.
Alistair Carmichael MP called for HSBC to stop supporting the CCP’s financial coercion against Hong Kongers that stray from the Party in The Times.
The South China Morning Post reported that 54 British politicians signed a letter to urge the UK government to place pressure on Hong Kong to allow Claudia Mo, one of the Hong Kong 47, to visit her gravely ill husband. The Hong Kong authorities should immediately release Mo and all 46 others not only on ‘compassionate grounds’ but on the basis of international human rights law.
The British Government announced that it will provide another year’s worth of funding for the British National (Overseas) visa scheme that has helped hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers resettle in the UK. The CFHK Foundation welcomes this extension that will allow more individuals from Hong Kong to flee the persecution of the CCP.
The Epoch Times exposed how new records reveal Beijing’s infiltration of London’s property market. The UK government should sanction the People’s Bank of China and other CCP-related entities that encroach upon Britain’s free soil.
The Daily Mail reported that Hikivision and Dahua’s Chinese state-sponsored CCTV cameras have been found on multiple British Army bases. The UK’s Ministry of Defence should take action to immediately remove the CCP’s technological weapons.
The Telegraph revealed that the founder of Chinese-owned Nexperia, which owns Britain’s largest microchip plant, was once handed a 17-month jail sentence over allegations that he acquired stolen technology.
US-China Relations
The Financial Times reported that Congressman Mike Gallagher opened the Select Committee on the CCP’s first hearing by detailing how the panel will “expose the [CCP’s] ideological, technological, and military threat”. The Congressman declared, “This is not a polite tennis match. This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century – and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake,” according to Reuters.
Congressman Gallagher called for the removal of the three Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices that remain on US soil during the Select Committee on the CCP’s first hearing, reported The National Review.
Congressman Mike Gallagher announced that the Select Committee on the CCP will focus on targeting US companies enmeshed with Beijing.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s Chairs, Representative Chris Smith and Senator Jeff Merkley, marked the two-year anniversary of the arrest of the Hong Kong 47 by highlighting the immediate need to release these political prisoners as well as the six Hong Kongers they earlier nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Hong Kong Government responded by threatening to charge Representative Smith and Senator Merkley with a violation of the law. Congress members standing up for the dignity of individuals who are arbitrarily arrested under the National Security Law should never be considered a criminal offence.
Senator Marco Rubio reintroduced six bills to counter the CCP’s increasing threat to the US. In addition to the CCP Visa Ban Act, Congress should authorise Hong Kongers to obtain Priority-2 refugee status so that they may safely remain on US soil.