Media Reports
The plaintiffs accuse this senior Chinese politician of being the organizer
of the Chinese crackdown on Falun Gong members, who are regarded as the
members of a sect. Georges-Henri Beauthier, a Belgian lawyer specializing in
human rights law, has held a press conference in Paris.
With this legislation, “the shadow of the more restrictive practices of the People’s Republic of China appears to be looming,” said CPJ in the submission.China, the world’s leading jailer of journalists, currently holds 36 journalists in prison. Most imprisoned Chinese journalists are held on subversion or state secrets charges.
Human rights organizations fear that the proposals, if passed into law,
would undermine the existing human rights and civil liberties enjoyed by Hong Kong people and could be used against anyone China or Hong Kong
objects
to, including political dissidents and religious or spiritual groups
such as
Falun Gong — already outlawed on mainland China.
PARIS (AFP) – Four followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual
group
have launched legal action in France against the Chinese Vice Premier Li
Lanqing, accusing him of torture, their lawyers said Saturday.
Falun Gong has become the major topic between the world and China regarding the issues of virtue and peace. China has been under overwhelming criticisms of the world media [because of the persecution of Falun Gong].
It revealed, among other things, that penalties for crimes against the
state
would be stiffened to include life imprisonment and that groups such as
Falun Gong, which remains legal in Hong Kong despite its illegal status
on
the mainland, could be banned.
Never mind that the typical
Falun Gong devotee is a little old lady practising deep breathing. Soon she
will be an enemy of the state in Hong Kong as well.
The 13 full-time professors criticised the consultation document, pointing out that the proposed legislation disregards the necessity for journalists to have the right to keep their news sources secret, and that it brushes aside the disparity in freedom of the press between the Mainland and Hong Kong, which blurs the ýone country, two systemsý policy.
Some foreign banks in Hong Kong are deliberating
whether to relocate some operations out of the city if the government passes
proposed anti-subversion laws, a lawmaker said Wednesday.
Falun Gong practitioner Jennifer Zeng was arrested in Beijing in 2000, and was detained and tortured for twelve months in a labour camp. After her release, she fled to Australia. In October this year, Jennifer submitted a lawsuit in the UN and the International Criminal Court, charging Chinese President Jiang Zemin with implementing “state terrorism” against Falun Gong.
