(clearwisdom.net)

The enactment of the Article 23 in Hong Kong's Basic Law poses numerous and direct threats to basic freedoms and human rights. Despite attempts to portray it as an effort to "modernize" the National Security Law, it actually betrays the spirit of rule of law and subverts the "One Country, Two Systems" guaranteed for Hong Kong, as enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in 1984 and registered at the United Nations in New York in 1985.

A particularly insidious and vicious provision of the draft legislation is the proscription mechanism--a mechanism that actually goes beyond the scope of Article 23. With the proposed provisions, any group or segment of society that displeases the leadership of Mainland China faces direct threats to its existence in Hong Kong, where free and open discourse has been a tradition and a wellspring of Hong Kong's economic and cultural vitality.

We fear that the legitimate existence of groups such as Falun Gong, Democratic Alliance and even the Catholic Church will be threatened. Not only are such groups productive and healthy elements of a free society, we consider them the litmus test of Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy under "One Country, Two Systems."

We understand that Hong Kong is a bellwether for Asia, and by extension, for the entire global community, with regards to rule of law and just treatment for all segments of civil society. It bodes ill for the future worldwide if such steps backwards are taken in basic freedoms and human rights in this vital and visible corner of Asia. The passage of this legislation and Hong Kong's further deterioration in freedoms and rule of law will also help breed a more aggressive dictatorship in China that the rest of the world has to contend with.

Please speak out against Article 23 and urge the Hong Kong Government to withdraw the proposed laws, and send a clear message to the leadership of China that the international community will not welcome a member that disrespects freedoms and rule of law.