"Our federal workforce, career diplomats, career people trying to serve their fellow citizens -- we do not want to politicize our civil workforce. As the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I must tell you, this is the kind of thing authoritarian countries do," said U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, led by Chair Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), is recognizing nearly four years since the wrongful imprisonment of Hong Kong media mogul and democracy advocate, Jimmy Lai. Today we honor Mr. Lai’s activism for democracy and free speech, highlight the cases of other prisoners of conscience in Hong Kong, and call for the immediate release of Mr. Lai and all others who are unjustly held by the Hong Kong Government.