BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Over the past two months, many opposition figures have been stirring up unlawful rallies, chaos and instability in Hong Kong.
Among those was Martin Lee Chu-ming, a diehard proxy for foreign anti-China forces.
A revisit of what Lee has said and done over the past decades showed his long-time antagonism to his own country.
Before Hong Kong's return to China, Lee actively supported policies by British authorities and begged for external forces' interference.
Early on in 1988 when he visited the United States, Lee said: "I believe many will think it is the best that Hong Kong remains a British colony for another 100 years."
He even advised the U.S. Congress in 1990 that the United States should enact a set of special policies based on the political wills of a fraction of Hong Kong people.
During another visit to the United States in 1996, Lee again begged for the U.S. side to meddle in Hong Kong affairs.
After Hong Kong's successful return to the motherland in 1997, Lee continued his provocation against the "one country, two systems" principle and repeatedly attacked the central government in endless China-bashing moves.
When China was preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Lee, in the Wall Street Journal, asked the United States to use the Games to pressure China for so-called "human rights."
For a long time, Lee has been in close contact with Sinophobia figures in the United States and the United Kingdom, begging and helping Western countries to meddle in Hong Kong affairs and interfere in China's internal affairs.
Considered to be opposition's so-called "godfather," Lee once said he "dared to be the running dog for colonialism" and took advantage of his influence as a member of the Legislative Council (LegCo) and as a barrister to mentor a number of hard-core troublemakers in Hong Kong, including Benny Tai, the mastermind of the 2014 "Occupy Central" incident and media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, another "black hand" behind the city's latest chaos and violence.
Lee has been trying to exploit the proposed amendments to Hong Kong's ordinances on the transfer of fugitives to stir up chaos by acting as a planner, agitator and organizer of the latest demonstrations and violent protests.
To that end, he frequently sought foreign intervention on many visits to the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, while colluding with Jimmy Lai to use the media Lai controls to publish a mix of distorted propaganda.
During his 2019 visit to the United States, Lee begged for U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's support in compelling the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government to withdraw the amendments.
Martin Lee, Anson Chan Fang On-sang and other opposition figures were found to have secretly met with Julie Eadeh, a diplomat from the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong in August who also secretly met with "Hong Kong independence" activists including Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Nathan Law Kwun-chung, according to Hong Kong media reports.
Ironically, it was Lee who first raised the issue of fugitive transfers between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland in 1998 when he was a LegCo member. Then, Lee proposed arrangements for such transfers, citing "fugitives threaten the peace and stability of Hong Kong."
When radical protesters repeatedly paralyzed the airport, vandalized public buildings, blocked roads, obstructed metro lines, besieged police stations and assaulted police officers with hurled bricks, iron bars, corrosive liquids and even petrol bombs, Lee publicly glorified such acts as "peaceful means" with "the admiration of the whole world."
While coaxing numerous young people into violence, vandalism and crime, Lee stayed behind the scene and never let younger generations of his family got involved in "street politics."
The ungraceful records of Lee's misleading and deceptive deeds over the years have proven that he remains one of the sources of the current chaos in Hong Kong and a diehard proxy for foreign anti-China forces, disregarding the long-term interests of most Hong Kong people and the whole of China.
As an old Chinese saying goes, "those who are busy with wrongdoings will end with self-destruction." The same warning, undoubtedly, applies to Martin Lee.
