US wanted Britain to ‘restrain’ Hong Kong opposition leader Martin Lee from holding 1997 handover protest, declassified records show
- Americans were worried Beijing might react ‘disproportionately’ to big protest on historic day
- Martin Lee says he does not know what the fuss was about, as he only held peaceful protests
Days before Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, a top United States official urged the British government to “restrain” Martin Lee Chu-ming and his fellow pan-democrats from staging protests against Beijing on the historic day, newly declassified records have revealed.
US national security adviser Sandy Berger expressed fears that a protest planned by Lee, the leader of Hong Kong’s opposition camp, might face a “disproportionate reaction” from Beijing if he went ahead.
The American said this in a discussion with John Holmes, principal private secretary to then British prime minister Tony Blair, on the sidelines of a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Denver, Colorado, held from June 20 to 22, 1997.
Lee told the Post that Berger’s remarks might have stemmed from then US president Bill Clinton’s strategy of engaging China.
The day after the G8 meeting ended, Holmes wrote to William Ehrman, principal private secretary to then British foreign secretary Robin Cook, letting him know what Berger told him.
