Chris Smith: “There is a great deal of support for Jimmy Lai. As we all know, he is 78. He got a 20-year prison sentence on top of the…”

“There is a great deal of support for Jimmy Lai. As we all know, he is 78. He got a 20-year prison sentence on top of the 5 he has already served. It is a death sentence. He is not well. He has a number of maladies that are affecting his health. We know, and the Speaker will remember, when Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, when he was gravely sick, the Chinese Communist Party would not even let him get the medical attention that he required. We don't want a deja vu on that ever. He needs to be released to his family so he can get the very necessary healthcare and to, in these final years, enjoy his amazing family and to be celebrated, frankly, for the great man that he is. Senator Rick Scott and I did a letter last week which kind of summed it all up. One hundred of our colleagues signed on to it. In part it said: The humanitarian case for Mr. Lai's freedom is urgent and undeniable. He is a devout Catholic and successful entrepreneur who has already spent 5 years in detention, much of it in solitary confinement.”