Lawmakers Ask State Dept. for Sanctions After Crackdown on Hong Kong Activists

Four lawmakers are urging the State Department to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials who offered bounties for the arrests of five Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living abroad, including two in the United States.

“The United States must not turn a blind eye to the [Chinese Communist Party] and Hong Kong authorities’ extending their long arm of repression onto U.S. soil and threatening the civil liberties practiced by persons living in the United States,” the lawmakers wrote in a Dec. 19 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The letter is signed by House Select Committee on China Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., chair and co-chair, respectively, of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

The letter is similar to a statement that Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi released on Dec. 14 (see 2312140068).

The State Department declined to comment on the letter. The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., didn't respond to a request for comment.