CV NEWS FEED // Representatives Tom Suozzi, D-NY, and Chris Smith, R-NJ, introduced bipartisan legislation this week to rename the Washington, D.C., street where Hong Kong’s U.S. office is located after Chinese Catholic dissident and human rights activist Jimmy Lai.
Lai, 76, is a journalist, Hong Kong businessman, and citizen of the United Kingdom. In 2020, Lai was arrested in Hong Kong, accused of violating a controversial national security law because he spoke out against the Chinese Community Party in his newspaper, the Daily Apple.
Lai has been in prison in Hong Kong for nearly three years. His trial began in December 2023.
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The legislation introduced by Suozzi and Smith, HR 8125, aims at honoring Lai’s witness and commitment to human rights, by renaming the address of the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office in Washington as 1 Jimmy Lai Way.
“Jimmy Lai is a man of faith and conviction, someone who fervently believed that Hong Kong’s prosperity and vitality were built on the rights promised to its citizens,” stated Smith in an April 25 news release. “For peacefully acting on this belief, he is arbitrarily detained.”
Smith, also a Catholic, is currently the chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
As CatholicVote previously reported, “In February, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation published a report warning that religious freedom in Hong Kong is collapsing under the pressure of the anti-religion Chinese Communist Party.”
Along with renaming the street in the District of Columbia, the legislation calls on the U.S. Secretary of State to work with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and People’s Republic of China to advocate for Lai’s release from prison.
Suozzi stated in the news release, “The free world must continue calling attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes in Xinjiang, erosion of democracy in Hong Kong, and saber-rattling against Taiwan.”
Suozzi said that naming a street in Washington after Lai signals the United States’ solidarity with those in opposition to the Chinese government’s tyranny.
Smith added in the news release, “For as long as the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office continues to operate in Washington, their new address will symbolize that this champion of freedom stands against their growing authoritarianism and human rights abuses.”
