Leading Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Martin Lee (李柱銘) said yesterday he was the target of an assassination plot during elections in the city last year.
The veteran activist, who founded the city’s Democratic Party, said two men had been arrested over the plot, which he said was foiled by police in August last year. The men were expected to stand trial in Hong Kong “soon,” he said.
Police had arrested an alleged hitman from China and a Hong Kong accomplice and seized a pistol and ammunition, the South China Morning Post reported.
A police spokesman was not available for comment.
“I was never afraid because, as a Catholic, death to me is just like pushing the door open to another life,” Lee told reporters after a meeting with US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Lee said he had been asked by police not to reveal the information, but had confirmed the story when contacted by a reporter this week.
The 70-year-old, who stepped down as a legislator last July, said he did not know who was behind the plot, but said the public exposure of the story could provide a warning.
“I hope the publication of the story will send a certain message to [whoever is behind the plot] that the police will still be trying to get to him or her,” he said, without elaborating.
The plot was uncovered during last year’s Legislative Council elections, one of the limited voting opportunities in the city.
Universal suffrage was promised to Hong Kong when it was handed back to China by colonial power Britain in 1997, but no timetable was set and democrats remain frustrated at the slow pace of constitutional reform.
Lee has also been at the forefront of the campaign to remember and vindicate pro-democracy activists who led a six-week protest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.
The 20th anniversary of the crackdown on the protests — which left hundreds, possibly thousands, dead across the Chinese capital — will be marked on Thursday in Hong Kong with a candlelight vigil expected to draw tens of thousands.
Lee told the Post that he did not think the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), of which he has been a vocal critic, was linked to the plot to kill him.
“They are more keen to use character assassination,” said the lawyer, who is banned from China.
Hong Kong, which has a unique legal system from China, has an outspoken and vibrant political culture, but violence against politicians is rare.
In 2006, current Democratic Party Chairman Albert Ho (何俊仁) was attacked in a fast food restaurant by a gang wielding baseball bats, although it is not known if the attack was linked to his political activities. Other leading democrats have received death threats.
Pelosi, who has been a vocal critic of China’s rights record in the past, was heading a US delegation visiting China for meetings on the nation’s climate change agenda.
Lee said he had told Pelosi he was “extremely worried” about the slow pace of political reform in Hong Kong.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS