Protest Against Hong Kong’s Article 23抗議香港23條法案 | Toronto Association for Democracy in China

The Toronto Association for Democracy in China (TADC) strongly condemns Hong Kong government’s Article 23 of the Basic Law.
《多倫多支持中國民運會》強烈譴責香港政府的《基本法》第23條法案。

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《多倫多支持中國民運會》強烈譴責香港政府的《基本法》第23條法案。

香港立法會一致通過這條新的國家安全法，擴闊了北京於2020年實施的《港區國安法》，讓政府任意地將顛覆、分裂國家、恐怖主義和勾結外國勢力定為犯罪行為。

今後市民與此類行為有任何極為間接、遙遠或輕微的聯繫，無論行為合法與否，都可被牽連於此等罪行。當局更以廣泛和模糊的定義去解釋如「國家秘密」或「外部干預」等用語。

當被控擁有指為「煽動性」刊物例如《蘋果日報》，新法例會判處最高三年的監禁，更賦予警方權力搜查任何場所及扣押和銷毀此類物品。一旦被判叛國罪，有面臨終身監禁的可能。

這項法案由一個盲從北京旨意的「愛國者」立法會倉卒通過，提交前只經過一場被視為鬧劇的「公眾諮詢」。簡而言之，這法案讓香港脫離國際法認可的正常程序，進一步容許政府「以法治港」。

香港當局將會毫無疑問地充分利用新法例來進一步限制香港境內的公民自由與自主，更會於境外進行跨國鎮壓，以恐嚇手段去限制居於海外任何人的言論自由，無論是中國公民或香港人與否。

此外，第23條立法使本已嚴苛的《港區國安法》變得更加複雜，其條款定義模糊，亦據稱具有域外效力，將進一步瓦解應具國際約束力的「一國兩制」框架。

《多倫多支持中國民運會》呼籲加拿大政府及自由世界的國家，譴責香港及其主權中國對香港人持續不斷並日益加劇的鎮壓。

The Toronto Association for Democracy in China (TADC) strongly condemns Hong Kong government’s Article 23 of the Basic Law.

Hong Kong lawmakers unanimously passed the new national security law on Tuesday that expands on the National Security Law imposed by Beijing in 2020 – a law that allows the government to arbitrarily criminalize subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces.

These offences could apply to persons who displays even the most indirect, remote, or tenuous connection to such actions — whether legitimate or otherwise — and interpreted by the authorities with the most broad and vague definitions of terms such as “state secret” or “external forces.”

Possessing a publication deemed seditious—the Apple Daily, for example—could attract up to three years in jail under the new law, which also gives police the right to search any premises to seize and destroy such material. Anyone found guilty of treason could face life imprisonment.

The hasty passage of this law by a “patriot-only” legislative council compliant to Beijing’s every wish is predicated on a “public consultation” that is seen as a farce. Simply put, it allows Hong Kong to do away with due process as recognized under international law and further allows the government to “rule by law.”

There is no doubt that Hong Kong authorities would fully utilize this new legislation to further curtail freedom or civil liberties in the region, as well as to apply it extraterritorially in their ongoing campaign of transnational repression to intimidate and to restrict free speech by anyone, whether Chinese citizens or Hong Kongers or not, who live abroad.

Moreover, Article 23 would compound the already draconian National Security Law, with vaguely defined provisions and purported extraterritorial reach, and further dismantle the supposedly internationally binding “One Country, Two Systems” framework.

TADC calls on the Canadian government as well as nations of the free world to censure Hong Kong and its Chinese masters for their continuing and increasing repression of the people of Hong Kong.