Hong Kong is the Last Free Place in China

My name is Gang Chen and I am a student of the Munich College of Technology in Germany. I was on Tiananmen Square on June 4th 1989 and personally witnessed the Liberation Army shooting students to repress their democratic movement. I saw students and citizens being beaten; many were beaten to death. I saw slices of bodies stuck to the ground after they were crushed by tanks in St.Zhang-an, Beijing. After that, because I refused to express my support for the government who shot those innocent students, I was suspended from school for a year.

Now, China’s persecution of good people has extended to Germany. Because I practise Falun Dafa, the Chinese Consulate refused to give me a new passport. Without a valid passport, the German authorities cannot give me a formal residence permit. My certificate to apply for a visa is only valid until January 2003. This has brought me a great deal of trouble in my studies and work in Germany.

In China today, people have no right to even enjoy good health. My mother, Hui-qin Pan, is retired. After practising Falun Gong, she became increasingly healthy, was able to get rid of her diseases and began to live a new life. On July 20 1999, Jiang Zemin began his ruthless persecution. His regime forced people to sign a statement denouncing Falun Gong. Because my mother had benefited physically and spiritually through Falun Gong, she refused to sign it. Therefore, she became one of the main targets of the public security bureau and before long they wanted to capture and imprison her. As a result, she was forced to become homeless to avoid further persecution. This was more than one year ago [October 2001]. The 610 Office [An agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems] of The First Steel Company in Beijing also suspended her pension. The vicious policemen relentlessly pursued my mother; they spared no efforts in persecuting her, by sending people from Beijing to our old home in Hebei several times. They even harassed our relatives and friends, threatening them to reveal her whereabouts.

My family is only an ordinary Chinese family, but it has already been bitterly persecuted by the despotic power of the Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin. Now he is attempting to extend his terror tactics to the six million innocent people in Hong Kong. He wants to make the Hong Kong people, who originally had a life of freedom, live under his terrible shadow by imposing Article 23 on them. He wants to repeat my family’s tragedy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the last free place in China. The future of Hong Kong becomes a testimony to the existence of righteousness and justice! Now is the time for us to say “No!” to Article 23!