{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415831", "Opening statement of Co-Chairman Smith at CECC hearingA Son and Daughter\u2019s Appeal to Xi Jinping to Release Their Dad, Jimmy Lai", "2026-09-16", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "The following are excerpts of Co-Chairman Chris Smith\u2019s (R-NJ) opening statement at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)\u2019s September 16th hearing, entitled \u201cA Son and Daughter\u2019s Appeal to Xi Jinping to Release Their Dad, Jimmy Lai\u201d:\n\nToday\u2019s hearing is about Jimmy Lai\u2014and an earnest appeal to Xi Jinping from Jimmy\u2019s children to set him free on humanitarian grounds.\n\nThey are grateful that President Trump has personally raised Jimmy Lai\u2019s release with Xi Jinping, and they respectfully ask him to do so again at the upcoming summit.\n\nWe will hear directly from Jimmy Lai\u2019s son, Sebastien, speaking for himself and on behalf of his sister, Claire, who was initially scheduled to join her brother today. Sadly, Claire was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and has begun treatment. We are thinking of her, praying for her, and wishing her a full recovery.\n\nSebastien, who testified on behalf of his father in 2023, will tell us today:\n\n\u201cMy father learned of his own daughter's diagnosis from a maximum-security prison. He cannot hold her hand. She wants nothing more than to have him with her for this fight. We hope the Chinese authorities will consider what compassionate release would mean for her, and for a 78-year-old man who has already suffered enough\u2026Let Jimmy Lai come home to his family and let him sit beside his daughter in her hardest moment.\u201d\n\nJimmy Lai is 78 years old. He has spent six years in detention. In February, a Hong Kong court sentenced him to 20 years in prison following his conviction under the National Security Law. It was the longest sentence, thus far, imposed under that law.\n\nFor a man of Jimmy Lai\u2019s age, and given the serious concerns about his health, a 20-year sentence carries an obvious and deeply troubling humanitarian consequence. His son, Sebastien, has described it as a death sentence. That is why time matters.\n\nJimmy Lai is not being imprisoned because he committed an act of violence. His son has emphasized that his father has never advocated violence. Rather, Jimmy Lai used his voice, his newspaper, and his public platform to support freedom and democracy.\n\nHe founded Apple Daily, a newspaper that became one of Hong Kong\u2019s most prominent pro-democracy publications. The newspaper was forced to close in 2021 after authorities arrested its senior executives and froze its assets. Jimmy Lai himself was arrested in August 2020 and subsequently prosecuted under Hong Kong\u2019s national security regime.\n\nHis case, therefore, raises fundamental questions about the meaning of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Hong Kong today. It also raises questions about the rule of law.\n\nHong Kong was promised a high degree of autonomy and the preservation of its existing legal and social systems under the \u201cOne Country, Two Systems\u201d framework. Yet, since the imposition of the National Security Law in June 2020, our Commission has documented the imprisonment of democracy advocates, journalists, former legislators, and civil society figures; weakened procedural protections; concerns regarding judicial independence; and a broader chilling effect on speech and political activity.\n\nJimmy Lai\u2019s case is emblematic of those changes. It is about whether a society can retain meaningful freedom of speech when criticizing those in power becomes a national-security offense. It is about whether journalists can report freely when the government can shut down a newspaper and prosecute its publisher. It is about whether courts can remain genuinely independent when national-security laws are used against political opponents and critics. And it is about whether the promises made to the people of Hong Kong still have meaning.\n\nWe should also remember the human dimension of this case. For more than five years, Jimmy Lai\u2019s children have had to live with the reality that their father is imprisoned thousands of miles away. Sebastien has spoken publicly about the possibility that he may never see his father again.\n\nClaire has spoken about her father\u2019s deteriorating health and the family's increasingly limited information about his medical condition.\n\nClaire has also spoken about something that I think is important to understand about Jimmy Lai: his faith. She has said that her father is not in prison because he is Catholic, but that his faith has been a major source of the courage he has shown throughout this ordeal. She described his trust in God and divine providence as something that has not wavered even as his physical condition has deteriorated.\n\nThat combination of faith and courage is part of Jimmy Lai\u2019s story. He is a businessman who built a successful enterprise. He is a publisher who believed that people should be free to read, write, criticize, and debate. He is a Catholic who has spoken openly about his faith. And he is a father whose children are asking for the chance to have their dad home.\n\nThis hearing comes at an important moment. The Commission\u2019s announcement notes the planned summit between President Trump and General Secretary Xi Jinping. That makes the appeal from Jimmy Lai\u2019s children especially timely. They are asking that their father\u2019s freedom be addressed directly.\n\nThis hearing also comes at a moment when Congress is considering concrete steps to address the treatment of political prisoners in Hong Kong.\n\nJust yesterday, I introduced, along with Senator Sullivan, the Jimmy Lai Hong Kong Political Prisoner Accountability Act of 2026 to establish a clear framework for accountability if a Hong Kong political prisoner were to die in custody as a result of inadequate medical care, abuse, inhumane conditions, or other actions or omissions by detaining authorities.\n\nUnder the bill, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, would be required to determine whether such a death resulted from those circumstances and identify foreign officials responsible for or complicit in the conduct. Those officials could then face mandatory sanctions under existing authorities, including the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.\n\nThe bill would also require the State Department to report to Congress on the health status of Jimmy Lai and other Hong Kong political prisoners, including any denial or restriction of medical care, legal access, consular access, or family contact.\n\nAnd that broader requirement is important because many Hong Kongers remain imprisoned or targeted for exercising fundamental freedoms.\n\nThe National Security Law has had consequences affecting journalists, political candidates, legislators, activists, lawyers, religious figures, and ordinary citizens, who have expressed views considered unacceptable by the authorities. Most recently, we witnessed the brave 29-year old democracy advocate, Joshua Wong, pleading guilty to collusion with foreign entities, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison under Beijing's National Security Law.\n\nThe result of this law has been a profound change in Hong Kong\u2019s civic and political environment\u2014and not for the better.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-17T09:52:05Z", "2026-09-17T09:53:00Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415831"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7856488227844238, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}