My Breakfast with Martin*

Today was a class day – which means waking up at 6:00am, rushing with my classmates to the Foreign Correspondents Club all the way over in Central (we have a solid track record of being eight minutes late) and earnestly trying to pay attention to the guest speaker of the week, which is made difficult by several things: the need to use my menu as a fan for at least 10 minutes, the need for quiet and focused deliberation over the least-worst breakfast choice (complicated by the multi-use of my menu…it’s hard to read as I wave it back and forth in front of me; further complicated by the FCC kitchen’s inability to accommodate “no milk, no butter, real bacon please.”) and the immense exhaustion that uncannily sets in as soon as I sit down at the table.

In spite of these trials, it’s pretty awesome to have class at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club and Mike has done a phenomenal job of lining up really influential leaders in Asia – fascinating people that I am still amazed we have such privileged, casual access to.

This morning, for instance, my classmates and I had a leisurely breakfast discussion with Martin Lee – one of the most recognized and influential political leaders in the history of Hong Kong. Lee was the founding chairman of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong (hailed as the “Father of Democracy”) and a member of the Legislative Council. Lee is an especially prominent figure in the US, and has worked closely with US government officials to advance the democracy movement in HK. Over here, however, Lee is a very controversial figure. He has been called a traitor, he is not allowed to travel into the Mainland or to Macau or Taiwan during certain “sensitive time periods” and quite recently, on July 3rd, a Chinese national, Huang Nanhua, was convicted and sentenced to sixteen years in jail for plotting to assassinate Martin Lee and his close friend and colleague Jimmy Lai. Lee and Lai are both known for being critical of China’s government and its sustained position on the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

And this morning, Martin Lee and Rachel S. and 11 other Annenberg graduate students shared coffee and toast. Lee talked about the history of the political system in Hong Kong, from its days as a British colony, to the period leading up to the handover, and to Hong Kong today, which Lee describes as having the fruits of democracy, but not the tree or the roots. Lee recounted the unfulfilled promises of the Chinese government – in particular, that Hong Kong would have democratic elections by the 2007. Now, China is promising democratic elections by 2017 and a democratic system by 2020. We discussed the tension between the Chinese Communist party and Hong Kong, and how it may or may not be resolved in the future. Lee shared with us a quote by Deng Xiaoping to best orient the current situation with China and Hong Kong, which I thought was very interesting. He talked about how systems are stronger than individuals…“If you have a good system, it will stop evil people from doing evil things. But if you have a bad system, it will keep good people from doing good things.”

We spoke about the apathetic younger generations, who enjoy the fruits of democracy in Hong Kong and don’t see the need for having the roots too. Young people are not taught politics in school and it is not popular conversation. The general attitude keeping students and young adults from joining in protests and democratic movements (such as those which occur annually on July 1st, the anniversary of the HK handover to China) is “why fix something that isn’t broken?” They don’t see the need or have the desire to vote their own representatives in democratic elections, for example. I was especially interested to know, from a PR perspective, how Lee and his colleagues are working to change these attitudes and behaviors through communication and outreach campaigns.

Lee is just one man in Mike’s all-star line up. At our first class session, Mike brought in Lee Cheuk-yan, a pro-democracy HK legislator who is one of the major organizers of the annual Tiananmen Square commemoration in Victoria Park that we attended on June 4th. We met next with Tsang Yok-sing, the current president of the Legislative Council and previously the head of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, the largest pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong. The US Consul General in HK, Joe Donovan, and Steve Vickers of International Risk Ltd. and formerly the head of the Commercial Crimes Bureau of the Royal Hong Kong Police have joined our breakfast table as well.

This past week we even had a special dinner with Po Chung, the founder of DHL international, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in HK, and a leading local philanthropist and prominent figure in the development of business education and promoting entrepreneurship. At the dinner I unfortunately ate a duck tongue.

It was an unbelievable privilege to share this morning with Mr. Martin Lee and these past several weeks with other considerable leaders and significant mentors. I once again have to thank Annenberg for being so well-connected, well-respected, and globally recognized that it can provide this sort of opportunity for us. One year ago, I never could have imagined that I’d really have the world and its resources in my hands…even if they’re occupied with rapidly fanning my menu half the time.


*Do you think they’ll make action-figures?