Veteran democracy activist Martin Lee was in Ottawa on Tuesday to appeal to the Canadian government to stand with those struggling for democracy Hong Kong, despite the standard warnings from Beijing.
Lee said to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, “I hope the Canadian government and the Canadian Parliament will speak up for us at this difficult stage.”
Naturally, the Chinese government was not impressed.
Chinese ambassador to Canada Luo Zhaohui sent a letter to committee chair Dean Allison before Lee was scheduled to appear, calling on Canada to cancel the hearing and stay out of China’s domestic affairs so as not to, “send wrong signals to the outside world and cause any disturbance to China-Canada relations.”
Lee told Canadian journalists that he was not surprised that the Chinese government tried to keep him quiet. “This happens to me every time I travel,” he said.
Allison did not mention the letter during the committee meeting, but welcomed Lee as a “champion of human rights”.
Lee told lawmakers that Canada has a moral obligation to the people of Hong Kong, citing the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which both countries lobbied for the “one country, two systems” scheme that ultimately led to the successful handover of Hong Kong back to China in 1997.
Lee was also in London and Washington last year to push Beijing for free and open elections as promised in the Declaration.
He was one of those arrested in December for his involvement in the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement that blocked the Hong Kong’s main arteries for more than two months.
Photo: ipolitics
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