41 Facts About Allen Lee

Allen Lee Peng-fei, CBE, JP was a Hong Kong industrialist, politician and political commentator.

Allen Lee was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, serving from 1978 to 1997 and was the Senior Member of the legislature from 1988 to 1991.

Allen Lee was an unofficial member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong from 1986 to 1992.

Allen Lee was the founding chairman of the Liberal Party, a pro-business party in 1993 until he retired after he lost the 1998 election.

Allen Lee followed his family when they moved to Shanghai to evade war and spent most of his childhood there.

Allen Lee's father became a merchant in Shanghai and had represented General Motors, among other US companies in China.

Allen Lee later moved to the United States in 1948.

Allen Lee had led an independent life and did not know much about his absent father because they seldom stayed together.

Allen Lee knew that his father had married several times, which made him feel rather uneasy.

Allen Lee was later enrolled in the University of Michigan and studied electronics engineering there.

In 1970, Allen 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.

Allen Lee helped the company to set up a factory in Taiwan and a new Design Engineering Department.

Allen Lee managed to arrange the workers to take a three-day work week and survived the dire situation after half-year.

Allen Lee improved the working environment by installing air-conditioning and waxing the floor tiles.

Allen Lee left Ampex and became Tang Hsiang Chien's business partner in 1985, establishing the Meadville Holdings Limited to produce printed circuits board.

Allen Lee set up a copper-clad laminate factory in Dongguan for Meadville.

Allen Lee denounced the government for mismatching talents by appointing an Administrative Officer to be the Secretary for Trade and Industry.

In 1978, Allen Lee became the youngest appointee to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong by Sir Murray MacLehose, at the age of 38.

Allen Lee had sat on the Consumer Council and Electronics Industry Training Board before.

Allen Lee held many public positions, including chairman of the Hong Kong Productivity Council and member of the Vocational Training Council.

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 and Albert Kwok, financier Leung Kwok-kwong and merchant Christopher Leong.

Allen Lee returned to Beijing in October 1983 and was met by the National Security Bureau Zhuang Xin and former Foreign Trade Minister Li Qiang.

From 1988 to 1991, Allen Lee was the Senior Member of the Legislative Council, succeeding retiring Dame Lydia Dunn.

Allen Lee subsequently resigned as Senior Member among accusation of conflict of roles.

Allen Lee soon found himself aligned with the Beijing government in opposition to Patten's reform proposals which largely expanded the electorates for the 1995 Legislative Council election.

Allen Lee sought to resolve the Sino-Hong Kong confrontation through negotiations.

Allen Lee became closer to the Beijing authorities, being appointed as Hong Kong Affairs Adviser, member of the Preparatory Committee and became member of the Provisional Legislative Council, a provisional legislature installed by Beijing countering the 1995 elected colonial legislature.

Allen Lee was made a delegate of the Chinese national legislature, the National People's Congress in late 1997.

Allen Lee stepped down in December 1998 and was succeeded by James Tien.

Allen 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.

Allen Lee became more open to speaking out about his support in democracy and universal suffrage and his criticism of the HKSAR and Chinese governments.

Allen Lee joined the democrats in the 1 July massive protest of 2003 against the legislation of the Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23.

Allen Lee 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.

In 2004, Allen 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.

Allen 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.

Allen Lee said his decision to quit was driven by the fear of possible harassment of his family.

Simultaneously, Allen Lee quit as the delegate of the National People's Congress in 2004, saying that he had faced pressure not to speak openly.

In 2013, Allen 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.

Allen Lee quitting after a year, citing conflict of interest concerns.

In July 2019, Allen 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.

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