Allen Lee

Lee was born on 24 April 1940 in Chefoo (now Yantai), Shantung, China to a Chinese businessman. His parents had four children. He followed his family when they moved to Shanghai to evade war and spent most of his childhood there.[1] His father became a merchant in Shanghai and had represented General Motors, among other US companies in China. He later moved to the United States in 1948. Lee had led an independent life and did not know much about his absent father because they seldom stayed together. Lee knew that his father had married several times, which made him feel rather uneasy.[1]

At the age of 14, he was a leader of the Communist Youth League, and organised marches denouncing the United States because of its involvement in the Korean War.[2] In May 1954, his mother sent him to Hong Kong where he attended and graduated from Pui Ying Secondary School.[1] After graduation, he had planned to continue his studies at National Taiwan University but his father intended for him to go to the United States. Subsequently, he was sent to the United States and began learning English in Dayton, Ohio. He was later enrolled in the University of Michigan and studied electronics engineering there.

After his graduation, he worked at the Lockheed Aircraft's Electronics Department in California. In 1966, he was appointed by the company to open a branch factory in Hong Kong. Due to a shortage of talented manpower, Lee was invited to serve as the factory's Test Engineer and Training Engineer.[1]

In 1970, Lee moved on to work for Ampex as Test Engineering Manager through a friend's introduction and was promised the position of general manager after two years of satisfactory performance. He helped the company to set up a factory in Taiwan and a new Design Engineering Department. In 1973/74, Lee became the first Chinese to have ever been appointed general manager.[1] During the time when he was general manager, the 1973 Oil Crisis occurred, which resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of orders. He managed to arrange the workers to take a three-day work week and survived the dire situation after half-year.[1] He also improved the working environment by installing air-conditioning and waxing the floor tiles. He offered the workers a remuneration package with a wage that was 10% above the industry average.[1]

He left Ampex and became Tang Hsiang Chien's business partner in 1985, establishing the Meadville Holdings Limited to produce printed circuits board (PCB). Lee and Tang were then chairman and deputy chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries respectively. Lee also set up a copper-clad laminate factory in Dongguan for Meadville.[1]

Simultaneously, Lee and his ex-colleagues from Ampex set up a trading firm that sold copper foils to manufacturers PCBs and cooper-clad laminates. In 1991, he cooperated with a Japanese buyer and set up Jada Electronics Limited, focusing on selling cooper-clad laminates and copper foils, in which partnership had continued until today.[1]

After his retirement, he became involved in the mass media, taking up posts as TV presenter and radio host. Lee hosted Legco Review, a RTHK weekly TV programme on the news about Legislative Council from 2001 until his retirement in March 2018, among several other posts.[8] He became more open to speaking out about his support in democracy and universal suffrage and his criticism of the HKSAR and Chinese governments. He joined the democrats in the 1 July massive protest of 2003 against the legislation of the Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23.[9] He quit the Liberal Party in 2003 over the party leadership's decision to drop its commitment to support universal suffrage of the Chief Executive election in 2007 in its manifesto.[10]

Lee in 2011

In 2004, Lee temporarily replaced Albert Cheng as the host of Teacup in the Storm, Hong Kong's most prominent current affairs programme on Commercial Radio Hong Kong. Cheng resigned because he had been under pressure from pro-Beijing businessmen to stop being critical of the Beijing government. Lee also resigned two weeks later on 19 May as the radio host citing the same reason, following another anti-government critic Wong Yuk-man who also worked at the Commercial Radio as a talk show host. Lee claimed that one Mainland official had called him at night, praising his wife and daughter before saying that he wanted to talk about his radio show. Lee said his decision to quit was also driven by the fear of possible harassment of his family. The successive resignations of the three hosts sparked a heated political controversy related to press freedom and media self-censorship.[11] Simultaneously, Lee also quit as the delegate of the National People's Congress in 2004, saying that he had faced pressure not to speak openly.

Lee (L) at the press conference of establishment of Hong Kong 2020 led by Anson Chan

In 2013, Lee joined the political group Hong Kong 2020 spearheaded by former Chief Secretary Anson Chan to provide a platform for soliciting views towards consensus on the constitutional changes needed to achieve full universal suffrage in the Chief Executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020.[12] Lee quitting after a year, citing conflict of interest concerns.[13]

In July 2019, Lee issued a joint statement with other Liberal Party grandees calling on Chief Executive Carrie Lam to officially withdraw the controversial extradition bill which sparked the massive anti-government protests since June, as well as set up an independent commission of inquiry and engage in meaningful dialogue with the public.[10]

On 19 May 2020, his family announced that Allen Lee had died on 15 May, at the age of 80.[14]

• Censorship in Hong Kong
• Media of Hong Kong

• 不准錄音 ("No Recording"). SCMP Smart Publishing. 2002. ISBN 978-9621784575
• 風雨三十年──李鵬飛回憶錄 (Memoirs by Allen Lee). Cup Magazine Publishing. 2004. ISBN 978-9889775476