"One Country, Two Systems" Survives in Name Only in Macau on the Third Anniversary of the Crackdown

July 20 this year marks the third anniversary of the Jiang regime's unchecked persecution of Falun Gong. It has also been three years since Macau's hand over to China. Is it true that "one country, two systems" and "fifty years of no change" in Macau remains unaltered? There is no need to give other examples, and by taking a look at how Falun Gong, which has the whole world's attention, has been treated there, we will understand the truth of the situation after Macau's reunification.

Falun Gong is a cultivation practice guided by the principle of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance, which teaches practitioners to become good people. Every society has so much to gain from it. Falun Gong has been spread to over fifty countries and regions around the world, and has received government commendations and proclamations in many countries. The only exception is in China, where the dictators are afraid of the number of Falun Gong practitioners, and are determined to persecute it.

In certain sense, the way that Falun Gong is treated has become the dividing line between a free democracy and a dictatorship, and is an acid test for discerning a genuine or false free democracy.

With this acid test approach let's take a look at Macau with its so-called "one country, two systems" policy of government. In the early days of Macau's return, Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah made a public commitment to provide Falun Gong some "space" to exist and hold activities. However, this "space," extremely narrow to begin with, has now almost completely disappeared.

In Macau, Falun Gong practitioners have been treated as "special figures" since July 20, 1999 and have received "special treatment." All their activities and conversations have been under strict surveillance and limitation. They have constantly been searched and interrogated, their telephone conversations are monitored, they are followed around-the-clock, their homes are searched, and they have been unreasonably interrogated or even held in custody when passing through customs. Some practitioners were even illegally detained for peacefully practising the Falun Gong exercises when Jiang was visiting Macau.

Almost all news media in Macau carry only the fabricated slanderous stories from the Chinese dictatorial regime. However, no newspapers are willing or dare to even publish a brief advertisement by Falun Gong practitioners regarding free Falun Gong exercise instruction. The Macau administration gives full support for large-scale exhibitions slandering Falun Gong that are held by some so-called pro-China organisations. Yet the administration gives Falun Gong practitioners a hard time when they are simply distributing materials and flyers that clarify the true situation.

A school recently fired a teacher, simply for her belief in Falun Gong. This teacher had been enjoying her career and was devoted to her profession. She took on extra assignments with no complaints, knew her work very well, and had been a very qualified teacher. She was unreasonably dismissed by the school for her refusal to give up her belief in Falun Gong.

It has thus become quite clear that some people in the Macau administration are following Mainland China's dictatorial regime to escalate the persecution of Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners in Macau are facing extremely unjust and unfair treatment, and have been deprived their basic rights as citizens, their fundamental human rights and even the right to exist. The policy of state terrorism maintained by the Mainland dictators is being carried out in Macau, step by step. People can't help but ask, "By following the dictatorship so closely and depriving citizens of their basic legal rights, can Macau still be called a free and fair democracy? Where is justice and social conscience?"

The only difference between Macau and the dictatorship in Mainland China is that Macau still needs to use "one country, two systems" as a cover. The authorities do not yet dare to illegally throw Falun Gong practitioners in prison or torture them to death, as is taking place in Mainland China.

It has only been three years since Macau's hand over, and yet the social system has fundamentally changed. "One country" is a fact, and "two systems" has long since evaporated, let alone the so-called "fifty years of no change."