A group of heavyweight U.S. lawmakers from both parties signed a letter Wednesday to the Nobel Committee Peace Prize Committee nominating the Hong Kong Democracy Movement for this year’s prize.
In the letter, Democratic Congressman James P. McGovern of Massachusetts, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and seven other senators and representatives noted that since March 2019, there has been a massive campaign for peaceful democracy in Hong Kong against amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. The Fugitive Offenders Ordinance poses a threat to the transfer of every Hong Kong resident to China and to their arbitrary detention. The scale of the peaceful demonstration reached over 2 million people out of Hong Kong’s total population of 7.5 million on June 16, 2019, a feat that set a historical record. Instead, the Chinese authorities cracked down on the pro-democracy movement by enforcing Hong Kong’s national security laws, with more than 100 pro-democracy activists detained, teachers dismissed, and activists disqualified from running for parliament.
The joint letter emphasizes that this nomination recognizes all the activists who have fought for the establishment and maintenance of democracy and human rights in Hong Kong since 1997, and the people who have spoken out in recent years against the erosion of freedom and human rights under international commitments such as the Hong Kong Basic Law and autonomy. The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize will best honor the “Hong Kong Democracy Movement” that has inspired the world in the face of the ongoing human rights repression in Hong Kong.
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