Martin Lee Chu-ming was born on 8 June 1938, with his ancestral home in Huizhou, Guangdong, and was raised in Hong Kong; his father, Li Yan-he, was a lieutenant general in the Kuomintang army. He is a Hong Kong barrister and pro-democracy politician, a graduate of Lincoln's Inn in England, and one of the territory's longest-serving Senior Counsel. He attended Wah Yan College, Kowloon, graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 1960 in English literature and philosophy, was supported through his studies by his mentor, the barrister Yu Shuk-siu, taught for three years, then went to Lincoln's Inn to read law, being called to the Bar and returning to practise in 1966. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1979 and chaired the Hong Kong Bar Association from 1980 to 1983. First elected to the Legislative Council in 1985 for the legal functional constituency, he was returned in every election until his retirement in 2008. In the 1980s he was appointed to the Basic Law Drafting Committee, resigning with other pro-democracy members in 1989. In 1990 he and Szeto Wah founded the United Democrats of Hong Kong, the territory's first political party, which did well in the first direct elections to the Legislative Council in 1991. In 1994 the United Democrats merged with Meeting Point to form the Democratic Party, of which he was the founding chairman until 2002. In the legislature he opposed press censorship and campaigned for fully elected government and human rights, receiving international human rights awards including the American Bar Association's International Human Rights Award in 1995, Liberal International's Prize for Freedom in 1996 and the National Endowment for Democracy's Democracy Award in 1997.
Martin Lee combined legal practice with politics and became a leading figure of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. He founded the United Democrats and served as the first chairman of the Democratic Party, pressing in the legislature for fully elected government, and his international human rights awards made him a figure through whom the wider world came to know Hong Kong's democratic aspirations.
Achievements
- 1979 · Was appointed Queen's Counsel.
- 1985 · Was first elected to the Legislative Council, representing the legal functional constituency.
- 1994 · Became the first chairman of the Democratic Party, serving until 2002.