CECC Member Marco Rubio Urges President to Sanction Hong Kong Prosecutors

According to Marco Rubio official website on July 21st, 2022: Hong Kong used to be a self-governing city that enjoyed freedom. Hong Kongers no longer have basic freedoms, including the right to free and fair proceedings and trials, since the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) enforcement of the National Security Law in Hong Kong in 2020.

Republican Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), along with U.S. Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), Jim McGovern (R-MA), and other members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) sent a joint letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to activate targeted sanctions against prosecutors in the Hong Kong Justice Department who continue to expand arbitrary detentions and political prosecutions in Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong government prosecutors are complicit in undermining the city’s once robust rule of law… [T]he Hong Kong government has taken steps to institutionalize political prosecution by creating a Special Duties team to exclusively handle political cases. While the new Secretary of Justice is widely expected to continue his predecessor’s hardline approach in quashing voices of criticism and dissent, individual prosecutors currently are permitted to decline to participate in political cases.

The Hong Kong Department of Justice and the prosecutors who voluntarily try political cases should be subject to sanctions for materially contributing to the failure of the PRC to meet its obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and for the arbitrary detention of individuals for exercising universally recognized human rights.”