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A Non-Practitioner's View of Freedom in Hong Kong: "Never Give Up!" Written by Hu Ping
(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.) * * * 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!" Posting date: 12/31/2002 |