A Martin Lee Story

Hong Kong's most well-known democracy activist Martin Lee (李柱铭) recounted in 1996 a personal incident which took place in 1990 when discussions were underway about the territory's somewhat uncertain future.

"When I got home my 8-year old son Joey was already in bed. He is a wonderful character and was a very lively, happy child. But that evening, when I went to kiss him good-night, he was sobbing his heart out ... I asked him, "Joey, why are you crying?"

"He said, "Oh, Daddy, I'm worried that I won't ever be able to have a birthday present from you in the future." I assured him that he would always have a present, but he replied, "How can you promise me that after 1997? You've already said you won't leave Hong Kong in 1997, and this evening I watched the television program. After 1997 they are going to arrest you, they are going to put you in prison. How can you give me a present then?"

"The episode made me very sad because in my fight for democracy and human rights, I knew there would be personal sacrifices, but I realized then the likely cost to those dearest to me." (Sally Blyth and Ian Wotherspoon, Hong Kong Remembers, 1996, Oxford University Press).

Interestingly, for me at least, is that Lee was selected in 1985 to sit on the Basic Law Drafting Committee. He was only removed four years later after he condemned the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, and for his role in the founding of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Movement in China, an organization branded as subversive by Beijing.

So Lee had not always been a pariah in the eyes of the Chinese authorities.