[August 21, 2003] The Australian Senate today passed a motion to oppose the pending Article 23 proposed by the Hong Kong government, despite vigorious lobbying by the Chinese Embassy to defeat this motion. It was reported that the Chinese Embassy sent a personal letter to each individual Senator to stop this motion.

After a 2-day heated debate, the Senate adopted the motion to oppose the so-called anti-subversive law in Hong Kong. One senator was quoted to say that she was pleased to see that Australia joined the international community by adopting this motion to oppose this bill.