Bill Pascrell: “for both sides of the aisle, Monday evening was a great time for New Jersey and America. I was at the Newark Airport at…”

“for both sides of the aisle, Monday evening was a great time for New Jersey and America. I was at the Newark Airport at 11 p.m. when Fuming Fong, an American citizen who has been held in prison by the Chinese for 3 years, was finally released and returned home. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the State Department, most notably Assistant Secretary Kelly, and Will Laidlaw from the U.S. embassy in Beijing who came with Fuming Fong to join his family here in the United States. He is from West Orange, New Jersey, which is part of my district. Fuming Fong is an electrical engineer. He was charged in a universal charge of bribery, which so many people are in Chinese prisons for. He was detained by the Chinese Government in February of 2000. After meeting with the Fong family in August 2001, I made the decision that this was something we could all get on board with, and so I went to China in January and the end of this year to plead with the Chinese Government, indeed, the President himself. Mr. Speaker, any time that we begin to take freedom for granted, I would like my colleagues here in this House to think of Fuming Fong and what he went through and how beautiful this country of America is.”