Lord Thurlow’s Speech before the Global Coalition Against Article 23 Rally

A dark cloud has been hanging over Hong Kong ever since it was announced that by agreement between its authorities and the Mainland Chinese Government, sweeping legal provisions are proposed under Article 23 that would erode the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents in ways that go far beyond the acknowledged need of governments to prevent threats of security and subversion. The measures proposed would undermine the principles of the Joint Declaration.

The international community and all responsible voices in Hong Kong have published their concerns. The freedom of the press is threatened; the business world has fears for the conditions that have made Hong Kong a foremost financial centre and channel of capital to China’s rapid development; the Catholics and other churches are apprehensive; and at the centre of the storm are the practitioners of Falun Gong, the peaceful and non-violent group that has become the victim for the most massive persecution in human history. Never before has a government persecuted 100 million innocent victims among its own citizens, terrorising them with torture, beating to death and incarcerating thousands in inhuman slave labour camps. The death toll is never declared and the torturers are exempted from observance of laws.

Under the proposed Article 23 legislation any group banned in Mainland China on security grounds would have to be banned in Hong Kong. Under local legal pressure such a ban would have to be upheld in the Hong Kong Court. But unfortunately, the independence of the administration of justice from official manipulation under pressure from Beijing is itself under threat after the miscarriage of justice in the harsh sentences of peaceful Hong Kong demonstrators in the summer after a travesty of a trial. The world awaits the result of an appeal to the higher court.

Falun Gong practitioners in Britain have warmly welcomed the representation made at every Ministerial level in recent months by British spokesmen to senior Chinese political figures. The Foreign Secretary and Lord Chancellor, and most recently the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Ministers with responsibility for Chinese affairs have made British concerns known. The Governments of the US, Canada, Australia and others have protested. It is only by exposure to public international shame that the Chinese Communist Government can be persuaded to abstain from pressing Hong Kong to join in the persecution of the innocent for nothing but their spiritual beliefs. China has signed the International Convention on Human Rights, but its provisions are ignored, flouted and abused.

Britain and the West look forward to a relationship of friendship with China. We admire its long history as one of the greatest civilisations and cultures of humanity. Mutual commerce will advance prosperity worldwide. But friendship must be based on trust and there can be no trust in a regime that kills, tortures and imprisons its own citizens for their beliefs and Hong Kong must not be turned into a police state under Article 23.