"A habit of depending on the government’s expansionary economic policy has formed and this certainly is not a good sign. One more point is that banks in China have seriously bad debt problems, and they are still providing high-risk loans to state-owned enterprises without these debts being written off. That could initiate a financial crisis and will thus threaten the economy in the future."

'In a news conference called to denounce the Hong Kong authorities' deportation of 80 Taiwanese Falun Gong followers on 20 February and 21 February, [Vice-President Annette] Lu said the former British colony has rapidly lost its shine as the Pearl of the Orient and a "beacon of freedom" since it was handed back to Beijing in 1997.'

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou urged the Beijing government to treat Falun Gong with tolerance. Mayor Ma made the request when attending the 2002 Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in Taiwan...Ma called on Mainland China to rethink Chinese culture’s attributes of diversity, tolerance and containment.

'The International Human Rights Organization and the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor joined together to contact the United Nations Human Rights Affairs Office in writing, requesting a show of concern about the issue of implementing Article 23 of the Basic Law in Hong Kong.'

Radio Free Asia reported that 44 internationally renowned scholars and professors signed a joint letter to Jiang in which they protested the establishment of Hong Kong Basic Law No. 23. In the letter, the scholars stated that this decree would harm the freedom of the people of Hong Kong.