House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday welcomed Hong Kong pro-democracy activists to the U.S. Capitol, sending a message to
Beijing that
Congress supports the
protesters in their months-long campaign for human rights.
Pelosi thanked the activists for "challenging the conscience," not only of the Chinese government, but the worldwide community with their mass
protests over the territory's autonomous status.
"If we do not speak up because of commercial interests in support of human rights in
China, we lose all moral authority to speak up for them any other place in the world," Pelosi said.