(Clearwisdom.net) (Note: Some reference materials reprinted on the Clearwisdom.net website are written by non-practitioners, whose understandings may differ from those of Falun Gong practitioners.)

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Recently, Hong Kong residents and overseas Chinese have held rallies and parades that have shown the peoples' opposition to Article 23 proposed by the Hong Kong government. We all know that the legislation of Article 23 is not just the will of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is actually the will of the Beijing authorities.

This has exposed some harmful misunderstandings. For a long period of time, there have been people who purposely or accidentally spread misinformation. Among these people are government officials who seem to be open-minded, experts and scholars in Mainland China, Chinese people living overseas and even some western scholars. They say, "the Chinese Communist Party is not hostile to freedom and democracy. The Chinese Communist Party has its own difficulties in not being able to practice freedom and democracy. Mainland China is very large and there are so many poor and illiterate people. The historical burden of thousands of years of dictatorship is so heavy. The people have no experience or tradition of freedom; therefore, China cannot practice freedom and democracy immediately. It has to go slowly." When these falsehoods are continually repeated, there are people who believe them.

However, let us look at Hong Kong. This is the place populated by Chinese people that has the longest history of freedom. It has both the rule of law and a stable social order. It has an ample market economy and a large middle class. It has the same type of education that is seen in advanced countries. There is no segregation. If the Chinese Communist Party did not have a deep-seated hatred of freedom and democracy, it would not rudely interfere with Hong Kong. It should allow Hong Kong to keep its own freedoms and continue to develop the democratic process that began before 1997. It should allow Hong Kong to serve as a model of democracy, supplying valuable experience for the democratization of Mainland China. However, the Chinese Communist Party has gone in the opposite direction. This truly reveals that the Chinese Communist Party is hostile to freedom and democracy.

For over five years now, the freedom in Hong Kong has been slowly whittled down. It resembles the slow cooking of a frog; many people did not have any obvious or strong feelings about what was happening. Now that the Hong Kong government is insisting on enacting Article 23, it is just like turning up the flame. Suddenly, people are noticing. If we still do not step forward to oppose it, the result will be too dreadful to contemplate.

About sixty years ago, the Nazis were threatening human civilization. At that time, totalitarianism swept over the continents of Europe and Asia. The struggle between the forces of freedom and democracy and those of totalitarianism were at an extremely critical stage. Churchill led the British people against the forces of tyranny. Churchill said to them, "Never, never, never give up".

Today the situation we are in is much better than that of Churchill. The forces of freedom and democracy have never been as strong as they are today. The principles of freedom and democracy have never been so deep-rooted in the hearts of the people. The Chinese Communist Party cannot conquer the world, and neither will it escape the fate of its utter failure. Things are getting more and more difficult for the Communist Party. We understand that the struggle between the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party and our right to freedom is arduous and difficult. We may face setbacks. We may still encounter disappointment. Under these circumstances, we should think more of what Churchill said when he faced a situation much more difficult than ours: "Never give up!"