Sen. Cruz Releases Statement On Guilty Verdict Against Jimmy Lai

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after the announcement of a guilty verdict by the Hong Kong High Court against Jimmy Lai.

In 2019, Sen. Cruz was in Hong Kong and met Jimmy Lai and other pro-democracy dissidents, before he was arrested. Earlier this month, Sen. Cruz met with the family of Jimmy Lai, where he discussed the persecution by the Chinese Communist Party and his ongoing wrongful detention.

Sen. Cruz said, "Jimmy Lai has been a powerful voice for the most basic freedoms and human rights, and an unrelenting dissident against the Chinese Communist Party's violations of those principles. There is no doubt that the CCP fears his voice and advocacy precisely because the tyranny they have established cannot withstand scrutiny and criticism. The announcement is outrageous, and the United States has a broad range of tools to respond, including targeted and broad human rights sanctions, and we should use them. Additionally, the announcement demonstrates that the CCP has seized functionally complete control over Hong Kong, and the United States will need to reevaluate the full range of our national security policies in response to that reality."