We are Falun Gong practitioners in Italy. We read the Hong Kong government’s consultation documents regarding the Article 23 legislation and consulted relevant background information. We are writing this letter to express our deep concerns about this legislation.
Before publishing the consultation documents on Article 23, the Hong Kong government did not consult the Hong Kong people over whether this kind of law is needed or not. Based on reports from media, on December 15th there were about 60,000 people who spontaneously took part in a parade against Article 23. This is the biggest parade since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. This obviously indicates that the Article 23 legislation does not comply with the will of the Hong Kong people. Hong Kong has enjoyed prosperity for several decades without this law; why does Beijing so urgently push the Hong Kong government to enact the so-called anti-subversion law after only 5 years of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule?
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Based on the proposal of the Article 23 legislation, any organisations banned in Mainland China, under the guise of national security, will also be banned in Hong Kong; the police do not need to have a search warrant to enter and search people’s dwellings and to arrest people because the police’s suspicion can be considered as evidence; any opinion which the Hong Kong government considers as subversive, can be punished, regardless of whether this opinion was expressed orally, written, or in an electronic form; not only is the person who publishes this opinion guilty, but also anyone who hears it is guilty if he or she fails to report the matter to the government. Information that was not published by the government must not be discussed, otherwise it will be regarded as revealing state secrets. The anti-subversion law applies to all Hong Kong citizens regardless of which country they are in. Anyone who violates this law will be extradited to Hong Kong. This law also applies to everyone inside HKSAR, regardless of their nationality, including visitors to HK. Any person who violates the law could be imprisoned for any amount of time between 7 years (for light offences) and life imprisonment (for serious offences). Article 23 is like a sword hanging over the head of the Hong Kong people. It threatens everyone.
Article 23 will also bring huge negative influences to the Hong Kong business community. Hong Kong has always been famous for its freedom of information, and the open nature of its economy. This is also an important reason why Hong Kong has unceasing business opportunities. If Hong Kong’s media and enterprises do not dare to report and collect political and economic information due to fear of “revealing state secrets” as stated in Article 23, Hong Kong’s freedom will be deprived, and Hong Kong’s prosperity will vanish.
The media in HK and all over the world, law groups, religious organisations, journalist associations, human rights organisations, educational institutions, and business people have all expressed their deep concerns about the definitions of some of the legal clauses in Article 23. According to international standards, any legal clauses must be accurate and concrete. However, the vagueness of the Article 23 legislation could easily allow the government to deprive the citizens’ basic rights in the name of “harming national security”. This is precisely the method used by the authorities in Mainland China to persecute religious organisations, dissidents, Internet users, scholars, reporters and Falun Gong practitioners.
Over the past three years since July 1999, Jiang Zemin’s regime has been brutally persecuting innocent Falun Gong practitioners. As far as we know, at least 528 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death. On June 25th 1999, the Chinese vice-premier, Mr. Qian Qichen, explicitly expressed the intention that Falun Gong and other organisations must be banned after the Article 23 legislation has been implemented. If the Article 23 legislation is enacted, the tyranny of Mainland China and its reckless violations of human rights, especially the persecution against Falun Gong, will extend to Hong Kong.
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We earnestly request you to take the responsibility for yourself and the benefit of the Hong Kong people, as well as the future of Hong Kong. We hope you can make your best efforts to maintain the freedom and rights of Hong Kong people, including yourself.
Sincerely yours
Italian Falun Gong practitioners
December 20th 2002
Translated from Chinese at:
http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200212/15570.html
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