Falun Gong and Article 23

Considering that the one country, two systems model was originally designed for Taiwan, ensuring a smooth reversion is also crucial for reunification with Taiwan: a failed reversion would both hurt economic relations with Taiwan and lead to stronger demands for independence there.

單非、雙非案︰The overwhelming majority, it seemed, preferred the overall welfare of society to the preservation (保持) of law. Accepting the ultimate authority of the Standing Committee to interpret the Basic Law, in January 2002 the Court of Final Appeal reversed its earlier decision by ruling against some claimants on the right-of abode issue.

Although freedom of press is guaranteed by the Basic Law, the PRC government has shown since the years leading up to the handover that it has its own view of what this freedom meant...In January 1994, local television station TVB decided not to broadcast a BBC documentary of Mao Zedong that the PRC government had criticized as being biased...In 1997, the Hong Kong Journalists Association predicted that self-censorship, rather than direct government intervention, would be more likely to undermine freedom of expression in Hong Kong.

After Chen Shui-bian of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party was elected president of Taiwan in spring 2000, Wang Fengchao (王鳳超), deputy director of the Beijing liaison office in Hong Kong, warned the Hong Kong media not to report on pro-independence activities in Taiwan.

In May 2001, the HKSAR government formally announced its intention to draft an anti-cult (反異教團體) law, the presumed target being the Falun Gong...In late June, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang abruptly withdrew the anti-cult proposal...In September 2002, during his second term, Tung Chee-hwa tried to introduce an anti-sedition (反煽動叛亂) and anti-subversion (反顛覆) bill, at the insistence of Beijing and as stipulated in Article 23 of the Basic Law...On July 1 (2003), more than five hundred thousand people staged the largest public demonstration in the young HKSAR's history...After pressure from critics of the bill and even from his own supporters, Tung withdrew the bill in early September.

In late 2003, President Hu Jintao warned Tung Chee-hwa that the issue of electoral reforms could not move ahead without prior consultation from Beijing.

Carroll, J.M. (2007). A Concise History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.