Seminar Against the Implementation of Hong Kong's Article 23 Held in Washington DC (Photo)

(Clearwisdom.net June 5, 2003) Before the Hong Kong Legislative Council votes on the enactment of Article 23 of the Basic Law, from June 1st to June 7^th, Freedom House and Human Right Watch jointly received a pro-democracy delegation from Hong Kong. The delegation composed of seven well-known figures representing the legal community, media, labor unions and human rights organizations is led by lawmaker Martin Lee. The delegation is visiting Washington DC and New York to call for people to pay attention to this legislation. If the international community does not take action, Hong Kong's basic freedom will be in jeopardy.

On the afternoon of June 2, the delegation held a seminar in the Dirkson Senate Office Building. Delegation members introduced from different angles to the attendees the possible consequences that the implementation of Article 23 would bring to Hong Kong. They urged people from all walks of life to pay attention to this issue.

Attorney Wu Aiyi, representing legal community, said, "This is not just a local issue of Hong Kong, it is an issue of the entire world, which directly affect everyone's freedom." She especially recommended a booklet published by the Hong Kong legal community entitled, "Why is the Blue Bill bad?", which enumerated in detail the bad effects of the Blue Bill and proposed revisions.

Attorney Wu said, "Although we say there is no need for the legislation, we are willing to assist the government to ameliorate this bad legislation and hope the government could listen to our opinions."

Representative of human rights organizations, Hong Kong Human Rights Watch, said, "If this legislation comes to existence, the first victim will be Falun Gong, then it could be the Roman Catholic Church and other religious groups."

When a reporter asked, "A genocide lawsuit against the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin was filed in the United States for his persecution of Falun Gong. It has brought a great impact in the international community. Will this lawsuit influence the Hong Kong government and make them think twice when passing the legislation?" Attorney Martin Lee said that the Hong Kong government and the Jiang regime precisely wanted to use this legislation to ban Falun Gong's legal status in Hong Kong. From this point of view, they will be even more anxious to pass the legislation. So the lawsuit will not help prevent the enactment of Article 23.

Martin Lee told reporters that no matter what, even if Article 23 were to be implemented, what they have done will be exposed to the international community and people will pay attention to this issue. From this point of view, the lawsuit is significant.