; Whereas the sovereignty of Hong Kong transferred from the United Kingdom to the PRC in 1997 under the terms of the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong (hereafter the Joint Declaration ), which guaranteed the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will enjoy a high degree of autonomy, and committed the PRC to keep the social and economic systems in Hong Kong unchanged through 2047; Whereas the Joint Declaration states that Rights and freedoms, including those of the person, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of travel, of movement, of correspondence, of strike, of choice of occupation, of academic research and of religious belief will be ensured by law in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and that those rights are reiterated in Chapter III of the Basic Law of the HKSAR of the PRC; Whereas the people of Hong Kong have held an annual Tiananmen Square vigil since 1990 and has been the only such mass gathering on Chinese territory because commemorations are banned in mainland China; Whereas, on June 4, 2020, thousands of people in Hong Kong defied a ban by the Hong Kong Police Force and gathered at the city’s annual June 4 vigil to memorialize the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre; Whereas, on June 30, 2020, China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee flagrantly undermined the high degree of autonomy promised to Hong Kong in the Joint Declaration and Basic Law by passing and imposing upon Hong Kong the oppressive and intentionally vague Law of the PRC on Safeguarding National Security in the HKSAR ( national security law ); Whereas the central Government of the PRC and the HKSAR Government have since used the national security law to suppress democratic voices in Hong Kong, including by barring candidates from standing for election and by arresting prodemocracy activists and opposition leaders