(Clearwisdom.net) According to BBC report on June 30, British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell commented in a statement issued on Monday, June 30 that the proposed new "National Security Bill" blurs the dividing line between the two autonomous legal systems.

Hong Kong civil organization will hold a protest march against Article 23 legislation on Tuesday

Bill Rammell also expressed that some provisions in the bill are inconsistent with the 'One Country, Two Systems' principle, which underlies the Joint Declaration between Hong Kong and the UK.

BBC report mentioned that this is first time that the UK government issued an official comment on the Hong Kong's National Security Bill that is to be passed on July 9.

Two Democratic Party members in Hong Kong's Legislative Council Martin Lee and Tu Jinshen especially flew to the UK last week to lobby the UK government and politicians to express their oppositions to Hong Kong's National Security Bill.

The report said, prior to the UK government's comment, the US White House had issued a statement to show concern for the legislation of Hong Kong's Article 23 of the Basic Law. The US House of Representatives also passed a resolution with vote 426 to 1 to urge China and the Hong Kong government to withdraw the legislation bill of Article 23 of the Basic Law.

The report also said that at the same time, a "Civil Human Rights Front" a coalition of more than 40 pro-democracy, religious and human rights groups had planned to hold a grand protest march on July 1, the sixth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China, to protest the National Security Bill.

Posting date: 7/3/2003
Original article date: 7/2/2003
Category: News & Media Reports
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/7/2/53263.html

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