In order to support Hong Kong citizens on demonstration of “ protesting Article 23, returning government to people” which will be held on July,1, Melbourne ‘Against Article 23 Alliance’ also have an assembly on June. 29, called ”defend Hong Kong, defend conscience”. After gathering in front of Chinese consulate, the parade procession walked for an hour and a half and finally reach Federal square to hold a speech. Representatives from Christian Federation, Democratic movement, Falun Dafa Association and Hong Kong community speak at the assembly.
Mr. Zhan Suo Lu, on behalf of Christian, expresses publicly his objection to Article 23. He said, Article 23 in nature is a copy of ‘anti-revolution’ crime. It is a tool of dictatorship and can be easily abused to suppress any dissenters. Some Hong Kong people are on hunger strike to struggle peacefully and protest its pass. In addition, Mr. Lu gives some figures and facts to show how cruelly and unusually Christians are punished in China. He delivers his concern for the fellow Christians living in such a terrible environment in China. Meanwhile, he mentions that Hong Kong Eparch Mr.Ri Jun Chen and Zhi Huo Feng have also expressed their opinions against Article 23 and lead the parade of Christian. In conclusion, Mr. Lu calls on all the Christians, all who love democracy and freedom to stand out firmly and show their attitude bravely.
Mr. Jie Ruan from democracy movement said, “As we know, the human beings are different from the low-class animals because they have thought and feeling. Therefore, to speak out what they think and what they feel is one of the basic human rights, an unalienable right of every citizen. It cannot be deprived by any country, any political party or any organizations. However, in China, the Chinese people don’t have such freedom of speech. They must follow the guides of the Chinese Communist party. The Chinese communist party incriminates and imprisons people on the ground of speech. Any people who say something beyond the guides will be put into prisons, even be killed. In China, all the publication of any newspaper, books and magazines must be under the permission. All media, such as TV station, radio station and Internet service organization must also be owned and controlled by the government. For keeping the dictatorship and covering the corruptions of the communist officials, the Chinese government suppresses the opposite voice, presses down the democracy movement, kills or puts the dissenters into the prisons. Many of them were treated miserably both physically and mentally. The Chinese government deprives the Chinese people of the freedom of speech, the freedom of association, the freedom of religious belief. This is very inhumane. It runs in the opposite direction of the human civilization. The system of the Chinese communist party is destructive not only to China, but also to the whole world. This has already been proved by the spread of SARS this year. Hong Kong was a democratic community. As Chinese, we understand and support that Hong Kong should be handed over to the Chinese government for the sake of sovereignty. But we cannot accept that Chinese Communist party breaks its promise, and imposes Article 23 to Hon Kong. The Article 23 means that Hong Kong people will be deprived of the democracy and freedom. We are firmly against Article 23 and we want the people all over the world t o pay attention to the human right situation in China.
The representative from Hong Kong community, Mr. Wing Tang said that as an Australian citizen, he is also under the power of this law because it states that people who are in Hong Kong are all under the power of Article 23, regardless of nationality, including people who transit and visit Hong Kong. Minor violations of article 23 can result in seven-year jail sentence, and serious violation leads to life term in prison. Article 23 means that any speech, action or handling of information deemed as instigative can be regarded as illegal. This includes oral, written and electronic forms; people who express, hear and fail to report such instances will be regarded as guilty. Furthermore, Article 23 confuses the concept of “government” with that of “nation”. In a democratic and free nation, citizens have the right to monitor and impeach the government, whereas Article 23 declares that opposing the government is opposing the nation.
It is well known that most Hong Kong citizens are against Article 23 are try their best to persuade the government to shelve this legislation. They don’t want this law because it will damage Hong Kong’s future economic benefits. People think the freedom of news, religion and assembly must be protected, the policy of “One country, Two systems” must be protected and the concept of freedom and democracy must be protected. Hong Kong citizens will reject any forms of legislation under basic law article 23.
Posting date: 2/July/2003
Original article date: 29/June/2003
Category: Australian News
