Szeto Wah, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Szeto Wah

Hong Kong politician and teacher

Date of Birth: 28-Feb-1931

Place of Birth: British Hong Kong, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 02-Jan-2011

Profession: teacher, politician

Nationality: China

Zodiac Sign: Pisces


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About Szeto Wah

  • Szeto Wah (Chinese: ???; 28 February 1931 – 2 January 2011) was a prominent Hong Kong democracy activist and politician.
  • He was the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in 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. Being one of the two icons of the Hong Kong democracy movement alongside Martin Lee, Szeto played an instrumental role in the emergence of the pro-democracy camp.
  • Entering the politics as a trade unionist for teachers, Szeto founded the influential Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union and was first elected to the colonial legislature through the newly created Teaching functional constituency in 1985.
  • He and Martin Lee became the two pro-democrats appointed to the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee by the Beijing government in 1985 until the duo resigned in the wake of the Tiananmen protests of 1989 which were bloodily suppressed by Beijing. Szeto 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.
  • He also founded the Hong Kong Alliance which has been responsible for the annual memorials for the protests.
  • On the basis of the pro-democracy support he also co-founded the United Democrats of Hong Kong to contest in the first Legislative Council direct elections which later transformed into the Democratic Party. Szeto remained the unofficial party whip of the Democratic Party.
  • He retired from the Legislative Council in 2004 and remained his influence in the pan-democracy camp.
  • In 2010, he led the moderate faction of the camp to oppose the radical-led Five Constituencies Referendum movement and played a significant role in drawing the revised proposal of the electoral reform package in the Democrats' negotiation with the Beijing authorities over.
  • He remained the chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance until he died in 2011 at the age of 79.

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