Editing Allen Lee (section)

==Political career==
{{Conservatism in Hong Kong|Politicians}}
===Member of Executive and Legislative Councils===
In the late 1970s, [[Hong Kong Governor]] Sir [[Murray MacLehose]] established the Committee of Economic Diversification to advance Hong Kong's high technology development. Governor MacLehose visited Ampex in 1977 and listened to Lee's outlook on Hong Kong's electronic industry. Lee recommended the Governor to build a technology park, but he was snubbed because high technology may incur a high risk. Hong Kong as a result failed to take a head start and was surpassed by South Korea and Taiwan which had built the [[Hsinchu Science Park]]. Lee denounced the government for mismatching talents by appointing an Administrative Officer to be the [[Secretary for Trade and Industry]].<ref name="memory"/>

In 1978, Lee became the youngest appointee to the [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong]] by Sir Murray MacLehose, at the age of 38. He had sat on the [[Hong Kong Consumer Council|Consumer Council]] and Electronics Industry Training Board before. He also held many public positions, including chairman of the [[Hong Kong Productivity Council]] and member of the [[Vocational Training Council]]. In 1986, Governor Sir [[Edward Youde]] asked him to serve on the [[Executive Council of Hong Kong]].

During his political career, he witnessed the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong's future after 1997. In May 1983, Allen Lee led a delegation of young professionals to Beijing, which included legislators [[Stephen Cheong]] and [[Selina Chow]], as well as barristers [[Martin Lee]] and [[Andrew Li]], architect [[Edward Ho]], doctor Natalus Yuen, journalist Mary Lee, [[Wing On Bank]]'s Dr. [[Philip Kwok (businessman)|Philip Kwok]] and Albert Kwok, financier Leung Kwok-kwong and merchant Christopher Leong.<ref>{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/hongkongsjourney00chun/page/65 65]|title=Hong Kong's Journey to Reunification: Memoirs of Sze-yuen Chung|url=https://archive.org/details/hongkongsjourney00chun|first=Sze Yuen|last=Chung|publisher=Chinese University Press|year=2001}}</ref> They were greeted by the [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party]] [[Xi Zhongxun]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Zheng|first=Yushuo|title=Hong Kong under One Country, Two Systems|publisher=Caituan Fa Ren Qu Ce Hui|year=2003|page=106}}</ref> In the delegation, they expressed their wish to keep the status quo in Hong Kong as it was "the best guarantee to maintaining the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong". They also sought to extend the British rule by 15 to 30 years. He returned to Beijing in October 1983 and was met by the National Security Bureau Zhuang Xin and former Foreign Trade Minister Li Qiang. In the meeting he was told the demands of the young professionals were rejected.<ref>{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/hongkongsjourney00chun/page/74 74]|title=Hong Kong's Journey to Reunification: Memoirs of Sze-yuen Chung|url=https://archive.org/details/hongkongsjourney00chun|first=Sze Yuen|last=Chung|publisher=Chinese University Press|year=2001}}</ref>

During the Sino-British negotiations over the future of Hong Kong and the drafting of the [[Sino-British Joint Declaration]] in December 1984, Lee joined the delegation of [[Office of the Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils]] (UMELCO) to meet with the British politicians in London and raised concerns about the Joint Declaration.<ref>{{cite book|pages=[https://archive.org/details/hongkongsjourney00chun/page/123 123–5]|title=Hong Kong's Journey to Reunification: Memoirs of Sze-yuen Chung|url=https://archive.org/details/hongkongsjourney00chun|first=Sze Yuen|last=Chung|publisher=Chinese University Press|year=2001}}</ref> The UMELCO also attempted to mobilise public opinion on the terms of the Sino-British agreement and made known Hong Kong's views to both the British and Chinese governments. Legislative Council member [[Roger Lobo]] moved a motion to demand a debate in the Legislative Council on the draft of Sino-British Joint Declaration in February 1984. It was backed by Allen Lee.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

===Senior member and Liberal Party chairman===
From 1988 to 1991, Lee was the [[Senior Unofficial Member|Senior Member]] of the Legislative Council, succeeding retiring Dame [[Lydia Dunn]]. After the [[Tiananmen Square massacre]] in June 1989, Lee joined the liberals to launch the Hong Kong People Saving Hong Kong campaign to press Britain to open its doors to all its colonial subjects here and grant them full British passports before the colony is handed back to China in 1997.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hong Kong to Push for Rights as Britons|first=Barbara|last=Basler|newspaper=The New York Times|date=21 December 1989|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/21/world/hong-kong-to-push-for-rights-as-britons.html}}</ref> He and the UMELCO also made concession to the liberals, to agree on a compromised model of a more democratic political system after 1997 in the drafting of the [[Hong Kong Basic Law]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In the wake of the landslide victory of the liberal forces led by the [[United Democrats of Hong Kong]] (UDHK) in the [[1991 Hong Kong legislative election|first ever direct election]] of the Legislative Council in 1991, Lee formed the [[Co-operative Resources Centre]] (CRC), a conservative parliamentary group with other appointed and indirectly elected members from the business sectors. He subsequently resigned as Senior Member among accusation of conflict of roles. The CRC later transformed into the [[Liberal Party (Hong Kong)|Liberal Party]] in 1993, where he was the founding chairman.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In 1992, he resigned from the Executive Council with other unofficial members after Governor [[Chris Patten]] took office. He soon found himself aligned with the Beijing government in opposition to Patten's [[1994 Hong Kong electoral reform|reform proposals]] which largely expanded the electorates for the [[1995 Hong Kong legislative election|1995 Legislative Council election]]. He sought to resolve the Sino-Hong Kong confrontation through negotiations. Allen Lee's Liberal Party and its allies tried to amend the Patten proposals and was backed by [[Lu Ping]], Director of the [[Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office]]. However, with the support of the [[Pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong|pro-democracy camp]], Patten's proposals were narrowly passed. For this event, [[Jonathan Dimbleby]] described him as a "weather vane" in his book ''The Last Governor''.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In the 1995 Legislative Council election, Lee ran in the [[New Territories East (constituency)#New Territories North-east|New Territories North-east]]. He returned to the Legislative Council by receiving 15,216 votes, 34.82% of the ballots, gaining the only seat for the Liberal Party and becoming the sole conservative candidate to be directly elected. He became closer to the Beijing authorities, being appointed as [[Hong Kong Affairs Adviser]], member of the [[Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region|Preparatory Committee]] and became member of the [[Provisional Legislative Council]] (PLC), a provisional legislature installed by Beijing countering the 1995 elected colonial legislature. He was also made a delegate of the Chinese national legislature, the [[National People's Congress]] (NPC) in late 1997.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In 1998, Lee ran in [[New Territories East (constituency)|New Territories East]] in the [[1998 Hong Kong legislative election|first Legislative Council election]] after the [[handover of Hong Kong]] but was narrowly beaten by pro-democratic candidate [[Cyd Ho]], receiving 33,858 votes, 10.25% of the ballots. The defeat marked the end of his political career, as he announced his retirement as Liberal Party chairman after the election results. He stepped down in December 1998 and was succeeded by [[James Tien Pei-chun|James Tien]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}