ARTICLE 23 – BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

After the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4 1989, nearly a million Hong Kong citizens walked through the streets to support the democratic movement in China. Soon after, the central government of Mainland China added a policy to the draft of the Basic Law of Hong Kong allowing the Hong Kong government to establish a law against subversion. This policy is Article 23.

At that time, people in legal circles opposed Article 23 and claimed that it does not conform to the democratic climate and spirit of freedom in Hong Kong. In fact, there are enough articles in the existing Basic Law that can be used to deal with any possible sign of sedition and subversion. In September 2002, the Hong Kong government hastily demanded the founding of laws according to Article 23 and refused to publish any details. The consultation period lasted only 3 months. In Macao there was no consultation period at all and Article 23 became law directly. The 1997 “One Country, Two Systems” agreement, ratified by the Chinese government and the U.K. government at the handover of the colony to China, demanded that there should be no change in the Hong Kong Basic Law. Western countries, including the U.S. and many European countries, supported this joint announcement. Therefore, all concerned countries have a responsibility to pay attention to the establishment of Article 23.

With a careful look at the consultation documents of Article 23, it is easy to see the malicious intentions. With orders from the central government, related officials tried to push through the legislation of Article 23 as quickly as possible and made it vague in an attempt to mask its persecutory nature. The Jiang regime has always seen Falun Gong in Hong Kong as a thorn in its side and wants to ban Falun Gong in Hong Kong using Article 23. In March 2003, during the meetings of the People's Congress and the People's Political Consultative Conference in China, Hong Kong officials were forced to promise that the Hong Kong government would take a series of actions to ban Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners all over the world have been putting a lot of effort into telling the world’s people the truth about Article 23. International pressure from the people of the world is invaluable in safeguarding the basic freedoms of the Hong Kong people.

However, Article 23 is not only aimed at Falun Gong, but also at human rights, democracy and freedom in Hong Kong. The promotion of Article 23 has worried and scared the citizens of Hong Kong and people who care about the region’s future. In order to persecute Falun Gong, Jiang's group wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice the future of seven million Hong Kong people. The world’s governments are following the European Parliament in expressing “serious concern” over the inevitable violations of human rights that would abound as a result of the legislation of Article 23.