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Will the Hong Kong Model Survive?: An Assessment 20 Years After the Handover

2017-05-03T09:30:00
138 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Twenty years after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China, there are serious concerns about viability of the “one country, two systems” model in light of Beijing’s unprecedented encroachments in recent years. The late 2015 disappearances of several Hong Kong-based booksellers sent shockwaves through the territory and the recent election of a new Chief Executive is a reminder that the promise of universal suffrage remains unfulfilled. At the same time there is a continuing erosion of press freedom and growing threats to judicial independence, both vital in any healthy democracy. The Commission will examine the long-term prospects for human rights and basic freedoms in Hong Kong as well as challenges to preserving its promised “high degree of autonomy.”

The hearing is archived on the CECC's YouTube channel.

Hearing Transcript

Opening Statements

Senator Marco Rubio, Chairman

[Full text of statement]

Representative Christopher Smith, Cochairman

[Full text of statement]

Witnesses

The Rt. Hon. Lord Patten of Barnes CH: 28th Govenor of Hong Kong, 1992-1997. (Appearing live via video teleconference)

Martin Lee: Barrister, founding Chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, former Member of the Drafting Committee for the Basic Law, and former Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (1985-2008)

[ Full text of testimony ]

Joshua Wong: "Umbrella Movement" Leader and Secretary-General, Demosisto

[ Full text of testimony ]

Lam Wing Kee: Founder, Causeway Bay Books, one of five victims of the forced disapperances of Hong Kong booksellers

[ Full text of testimony ]

Ellen Bork: Writer

[ Full text of testimony ]