He was, however, expelled from the body in 1989 in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen square crackdown, due to his condemnation of the Beijing government's role in the incident and his vocal support for the student protestors.

He worked closely with the last Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten in an attempt to push forward constitutional reform in relation to democratic elections, attracting strong criticism from the Beijing government.

[3] His father maintained a good relationship with the Communist leadership, notably Premier Zhou Enlai, who repeatedly invited him back to the Mainland.

[3] Martin Lee studied at Wah Yan College, Kowloon and read English Literature and Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong, sponsored by his mentor, the renowned barrister Dr. Patrick Yu.

He and other liberals formed the Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government in 1986, which consisted of about 190 organisations who rallied support for direct elections, including the collection of 220,000 signatures (incl.

Lee condemned the government for mishandling the consultative exercise, accusing them of backing down on direct elections in the face of Beijing's pressure.

[15] He also campaigned against the construction of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 in which the Chernobyl disaster sparked fears over safety among the Hong Kong public.

[18] In the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee, Lee also actively lobbied for a democratic post-1997 political system with Szeto Wah.

Their view was countered bya number of conservatives in the Drafting and Consultative Committees who rallied under the name of the "Group of 89" backed by big-business interests.

"[22] He also testified before the United States Congress Committee on human rights and aired support to imposing economic sanctions against for the massacre.

In September 1995, ABC TV named Martin Lee its "Person of the Week" for leading Hong Kong's pro-democracy forces to electoral success.

Chris Patten announced the constitutional reform package which largely expanded the electorates of the nine newly created functional constituencies.

[24] In response to Patten's proposal, the Beijing government decided to dismantle the "through train" agreement, which allowed the 1995 elected legislature to transition beyond 1997, and replace it with the Provisional Legislative Council in which Lee deemed "an illegal and unconstitutional body".

On the eve of the handover of Hong Kong on 1 July 1997, Lee travelled to Europe, Australia and the United States to express his concerns to officials, politicians and business leaders.

He met in April with US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and later with President Bill Clinton, who had openly voiced out his support in democracy and human rights in China and Hong Kong.

Despite winning the most votes, the party seats decreased to 13, as their advantage was undermined by the proportional representation system installed by the Beijing-controlled Provisional Legislative Council.

A major concern about Hong Kong's legal and political autonomy was raised in January 1999 when the government sought to the interpretation of the Basic Law by the National People's Congress Standing Committee after it was defeated in the Court of Final Appeal over the legal challenges over the right of abode of a person with at least one parent was a Hong Kong resident, as the Provisional Legislative Council passed ordinances restricting the right.

The factional struggles intensified the "Young Turk" leader Andrew To proposed to put the minimum wage legislation on the 2000 Legislative Council election platform which caused a fierce debate within the party and resulted in great disunity that led to the exodus of the "Young Turks" from the party and created a bad image in front of the public.

Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa bashed Lee for "bad mouthing" the Special Administrative Region in front of the international audience for six years.

[33] The protest against the Article 23 legislation eventually drew more than 500,000 people on 1 July 2003 and the government announced to shelve the bill indefinitely knowing that it could not get enough votes in the legislature.

[36] When the results were announced in the morning of the following day, Martin Lee said in tears before cameras "I'd rather lose with dignity than win like this", on the "unexpected" defeat of Cyd Ho.

[40] Martin Lee remained active in commenting politics and his legal practise after his retirement from the Legislative Council, especially taking cases of defending the pro-democracy activists who were charged for obstructing public order among other offences.

In 2009, he was marginalised by his party when he held different stance on the "Five Constituencies Referendum" proposed by the radical League of Social Democrats to press the government to implement the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council in 2012 by launching a territory-wide by-election after five pro-democracy Legislative Councillor resigned from their offices at the same time, while the majority wing of the party led by Szeto Wah openly opposed the plan who criticised Lee for "not quite understanding politics".

The duo went to the United States and met Joe Biden, US vice-president, Nancy Pelosi, minority leader of the House of Representatives, and members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and spoke out against Beijing increasing control over Hong Kong and their fear of only candidates picked by Beijing would be allowed to take part in the 2017 Chief Executive election.

[citation needed] In July 2014, Martin Lee and Anson Chan visited the United Kingdom and met with Deputy Prime Minister and the leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg and attended a Foreign Affairs Select Committee hearing, speaking out that they were "concerned that neither of the two signatories to the Joint Declaration – that is, China and Britain – is adequately fulfilling their respective responsibilities on the terms of this internationally binding treaty."

Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to Britain, described Martin Lee and Anson Chan as "bent on undermining the stability of Hong Kong".

[44] Therefore, Lee said that the right for male villagers to build homes without paying land fees are based on British policies and were never part of the indigenous traditions that the Basic Law protects under Article 40,[44] which does not specifically mention small houses and only says "The lawful traditional rights and interests of the indigenous inhabitants of the 'New Territories' shall be protected by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

"[48] On 1 April 2021, district judge Amanda Jane Woodcock (胡雅文) convicted Martin Lee of "holding an unauthorised assembly".

[50] On 12 April 2024 Martin Lee (then aged 86) received from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal a suspended sentence following conviction for taking part in an unauthorised procession in August 2019.

[51] The appeal generated considerable adverse publicity for Lord Neuberger (former President of the UK Supreme Court) for his participation in the decision.