1. Condemning the jailing of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong (a) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) In 1997, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with guarantees that fundamental rights are protected under both the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, which enumerate specific rights and freedoms including those of speech, of the press, and of assembly. (2) The Government of the People’s Republic of China has repeatedly undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy since the 1997 handover, and in particular since the Umbrella Movement protests in 2014, the mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, and the imposition of the draconian National Security Law in 2020, which is vaguely defined and broadly applied to punish people for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights and freedoms. (3) Since its enactment in June 2020, the National Security Law, unilaterally passed by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and enforced by officials in Hong Kong as a pretext to repress legitimate and peaceful speech, assembly, and expression of political opinions. (4) Jimmy Lai, a 76-year-old Hong Kong democracy advocate, media entrepreneur, and a British citizen, has been in prison since December 2020 on multiple fabricated charges, and is currently serving a sentence of almost six years in prison under politically motivated fraud charges, having already served two other sentences, one for joining a vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, and another for participating in peaceful protests in 2019. (5) The Apple Daily newspaper which Jimmy Lai founded and published was forced by the authorities in Hong Kong to close in June 2021, and his Next Media company was delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under government coercion in January 2023. (6) The trial of Jimmy Lai on charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under the National Security Law and conspiracy to publish seditious publications under the sedition law began on December