52 Facts About Szeto Wah

Szeto Wah was a Hong Kong democracy activist and politician.

Szeto Wah was the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1985 to 1997 and from 1997 to 2004.

Szeto Wah played a significant part in gathering popular support of the Hong Kong public in the Tiananmen democracy movement and subsequently the Operation Yellowbird rescuing the wanted democracy activists.

Szeto Wah founded the Hong Kong Alliance which has been responsible for the annual memorials for the protests.

Szeto Wah remained as the unofficial party whip of the Democratic Party.

Szeto Wah retired from the Legislative Council in 2004 and retained his influence in the pan-democracy camp.

Szeto Wah remained the chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance until he died in 2011 at the age of 79.

Szeto Wah was born in Hong Kong on 28 February 1931 in Hong Kong with the family root in Chikan, Kaiping, Guangdong.

Szeto Wah recalled his patriotism grew during the war when he heard about the stories of the Chinese war heroes.

Szeto Wah's mother died at the age of 38 in 1942 and his father remarried afterwards.

Szeto Wah's father died of cancer at the Precious Blood Hospital in 1952 and was survived by his second wife and ten children.

In Hong Kong, Szeto Wah studied at the Yau Ma Tei Government School and then Queen's College, and graduated from the Grantham College of Education.

Szeto Wah was contacted by the underground Communists and joined the Chinese New Democracy Youth League, the predecessor of the Communist Youth League of China, in September 1949.

Under the instruction of the Chinese Communist Party, Szeto Wah founded the Hok Yau Club in 1949.

Szeto Wah was sent to become an editor at the left-leaning Children's Weekly in 1960.

Szeto Wah was actively involved in the opposition campaign and the founding of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union in 1972 as the founding vice-chairman under Tsin Sai-nin.

Szeto Wah became the first chairman elected in 1974 and assumed its position until 1990.

Szeto Wah was highlighted for his leadership and effectiveness in maintaining the PTU's independence against Communist infiltration.

In 1978, Szeto Wah was elected chairman of the joint committee of the Chinese Language Movement during the second wave of the movement for the equal status of the Chinese language to English.

Szeto Wah was involved in the Defend Diaoyu Islands movement in 1982 sparked by the Japanese government's revision of the history textbooks.

In December 1984, Szeto Wah was invited by the Beijing government to witness the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

In 1985, the Beijing government invited Szeto Wah to sit on the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee to draft the Basic Law of Hong Kong, the mini-constitution of the Special Administrative Region after 1997.

Szeto Wah met another like-minded barrister Martin Lee in the Drafting Committee with whom he began to push for further democratisation in the following years.

Szeto Wah began actively pushing a faster pace of democratisation.

Szeto Wah was elected chairman of the alliance, a role in which he remained until his death in 2011.

Szeto Wah received a call from Lydia Dunn, the Senior Member of the Executive Council, saying that she had received a report from the police that some men from the mainland were involved in the riot.

Szeto Wah was suggested to cancel the planned rally in which he agreed.

Szeto Wah resigned from his position in the Drafting Committee with Martin Lee after the crackdown.

Szeto Wah had been responsible for the annual Tiananmen memorials and the candlelight vigil at the Victoria Park since 1990.

Szeto Wah ran in Kowloon East, receiving more than 57,000 votes and elected with his ally Meeting Point's Li Wah-ming.

Nonetheless, Szeto Wah was given as the unofficial position of "party whip" due to his seniority without much actual power.

Szeto Wah ran in the 1995 Legislative Council election as implemented by the Patten's proposal.

Szeto Wah defeated another veteran politician Elsie Tu in Kowloon East, who he had defeated few months ago in the Urban Council election.

Szeto Wah launched a petition movement as the civil Chief Executive to mock the first Chief Executive election of 1996 by the Beijing-controlled 400-member Selection Committee.

Szeto Wah eventually accumulated more than 104,000 signatures with their ID numbers.

Szeto Wah was re-elected in 2000 and decided to retire in 2004.

Szeto Wah became one of the five-member committee to investigate the incident.

On 25 May 2007 Szeto Wah was one of eight people arrested and charged with speaking at a radio show broadcast hosted by the unlicensed Citizen's Radio on the subject of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

Critics argued that the Hong Kong government selectively persecuted Szeto Wah for using unlicensed equipment when delivering the political message as other members had spoken on the radio and were not charged.

In December 2009, Szeto Wah was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Szeto Wah was told by pro-Beijing politician Cheng Kai-nam that the central government was concerned about his illness.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang visited Szeto Wah and told him that he could arrange Szeto Wah to be treated in the mainland.

Szeto Wah initially said it was considerable and suggested the Democratic Party to actively respond to it.

However, after a period of observation, Szeto Wah believed the true intention of the LSD was to take over the leadership of the democracy movement as they had aggressively attacked other allies within the camp.

Szeto Wah then shifted his stance on the movement and actively opposed the proposed plan.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party leaders began to negotiate with the Beijing authorities and a revised proposal suggested by Szeto Wah was accepted by Beijing.

Szeto Wah attended the party meeting after chemotherapy and spoke in support of the revised proposal, stating that it was better to have the increase of five directly elected seats, five functional constituency seats but almost directly elected and the abolition of the appointed District Council seats than nothing.

Szeto Wah died on 2 January 2011 at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

Upright, industrious and unwavering in the pursuit of his ideals, Mr Szeto Wah earned great respect from across the community.

Szeto Wah only had a romance publicly acknowledged with his fellow teacher Wong Siu-yung who died in the 1980s.

Under Wong's influence, Szeto Wah was baptized as Christian on 8 April 1985.

Szeto Wah lived with his younger sister in Mong Kok.