Sec. 3. Findings
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Congress finds the following: The Hong Kong National Security Law promulgated on July 1, 2020— contravenes the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (referred to in this Act as the Basic Law ) that provides in Article 23 that the Legislative Council of Hong Kong shall enact legislation related to national security; violates the PRC’s commitments under international law, as defined by the Joint Declaration; and causes severe and irreparable damage to the one country, two systems principle and further erodes global confidence in the PRC’s commitment to international law.
On July 14, 2020, in response to the promulgation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, President Trump signed an Executive order on Hong Kong normalization that, among other policy actions, suspended the special treatment of Hong Kong persons under U.S. law with respect to the issuance of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. The United States has a long and proud history as a destination for refugees and asylees fleeing persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
The United States also shares deep social, cultural, and economic ties with the people of Hong Kong, including a shared commitment to democracy, to the rule of law, and to the protection of human rights. The United States has sheltered, protected, and welcomed individuals who have fled authoritarian regimes, including citizens from the PRC following the violent June 4, 1989, crackdown in Tiananmen Square, deepening ties between the people of the United States and those individuals seeking to contribute to a free, open society founded on democracy, human rights, and the respect for the rule of law.
The United States has reaped enormous economic, cultural, and strategic benefits from welcoming successive generations of scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, artists, intellectuals, and other freedom-loving people fleeing fascism, communism, violent Islamist extremism, and other repressive ideologies, including in the cases of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Soviet-controlled Central Europe, Cuba, Vietnam, and Iran. A major asymmetric advantage of the United States in its long-term strategic competition with the Communist Party of China is the ability of people from every country in the world, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, or religion, to immigrate to the United States and become American citizens.