24 civil society organisations urge President Trump to press Xi Jinping on Jimmy Lai, bounties and sanctions ahead of China visit

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing on 14-15 May, Hong Kong Watch has led a cohort of 24 Hong Kong diaspora organisations and civil society groups to issue a joint statement urging the President to raise the human rights situation in Hong Kong and the Chinese Communist Party’s escalating transnational repression in his meetings with General Secretary Xi Jinping.

The signatories warn that the summit agenda risks being dominated by trade, tariffs, and supply chains while fundamental rights are pushed into closed-door asides or omitted altogether. 

The statement includes three concrete calls for the President:

  1. Secure the immediate release of Jimmy Lai, alongside Chow Hang-tung, Owen Chow, Gwyneth Ho, and other prisoners of conscience. 

  2. Demand the withdrawal of all bounties and arrest warrants issued against 34 Hong Kongers in the US, UK, Canada, EU, and Australia, and the release of family members detained as proxies – beginning with Mr Kwok Yin-sang, the father of US-based activist Anna Kwok, whose conviction this year marked the first prosecution of an exiled activist’s family member.

  3. Refuse to ease US sanctions on Hong Kong and People’s Republic of China officials.

“A summit that produces a trade arrangement while a cohort of prisoners of conscience languishes in prison, exiled activists’ families are harassed and imprisoned, and bounties remain active on residents of the United States and its allied democracies will not be remembered as a diplomatic success,” the statement reads.

The full joint statement is available here.

 

特朗普本週訪中 24個民間組織聯署促請就黎智英、懸紅通緝令、制裁向習近平施壓

有見美國總統特朗普（Donald Trump）將於5月14日至15日國事訪問北京，香港監察帶領24個海外港人組織和民間團體發表聯合聲明，促請特朗普總統與中國國家主席習近平會談時，提出香港人權狀況和中國共產黨跨國鎮壓不斷升級的問題。

聯署組織警告，峰會議程可能會被貿易、關稅和供應鏈議題主導，而基本權利則被擱置一旁，甚至被完全排除在外。

聲明向特朗普總統提出下列三項具體呼籲：

  1. 確保立即釋放黎智英，以及鄒幸彤、鄒家成、何桂藍和其他良心犯。

  2. 要求撤銷對34名身在美國、英國、加拿大、歐盟和澳洲香港人發出的懸紅通緝令，並釋放被扣押為代理人的家屬——首先是居美社運人士郭鳯儀的父親郭賢生，他今年被裁定違反「23條」罪成，是首宗起訴流亡社運人士家人的案例。

  3. 拒絕放寬美國對香港和中國官員的制裁。

聲明指出：「即使峰會促成貿易協議，但與此同時，一群良心犯正受牢獄之苦；流亡社運人士的家人受到騷擾和監禁；美國及民主盟國居民仍被懸紅通緝，那這場峰會也不算是外交上的成功。」

聯合聲明全文可在此處閱覽。

 

Photo: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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