(Clearwisdom.net) Recently some members of the European parliament have asked questions to the European Commission on what information the Commission has on the issue of the Article 23 and what initiatives the Commission has taken or intends to take in order to prevent the implementation of Article 23.

In September 2002, Hong Kong government introduced a piece of controversial legislation -- Article 23. It seems that the proposed legislation was written under direct pressure from China and is far more restrictive and severe than required by the Basic Law. It appears that if it were enacted, Hong Kong would have to ban any organization determined by China as a national security risk. All dissident groups including human rights groups, democracy activists, Catholics and Falun Gong, as well as individuals, would be affected. This is against HK's autonomy and the "One Country-Two Systems" principle. It seems that the proposed law would also put serious restrictions on HK's media with regard to publishing information relating to the Chinese Central Government in Beijing.

The followings are the questions asked by Olivier Dupuis MEP to the European Commission:

"What information does the Commission have on this issue? What initiatives has the Commission taken or intends to take in order to prevent the implementation of Article 23? More generally, what initiatives has the Commission taken or intends to take to urge the Hong Kong government to keep "One country-Two systems" policy which the Chinese authority has promised to maintain in Hong Kong for 50 years after Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997, to respect the basic human rights and, in particular, the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion or belief, the freedom of assembly and peaceful demonstration?"

Posting date: 12/9/2002
Original article date: 12/9/2002
Category: Open Forum
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/12/2/40327.html

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