Lee Tze-chung 1912-2012
A veteran Hong Kong journalist who, with a colleague, took the decision to publish a historic editorial in a pro-Beijing newspaper criticising the imposition of martial law in Tiananmen Square ahead of the June 4, 1989, crackdown has died.
Lee Tze-chung, who was president of Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po between 1951 and 1989, died at the age of 100 on Friday. The cause of death was multiple organ failure.
Lee's decades-long career at the leftist newspaper was most notable for the decision he made with then editor-in-chief Kam Yiu-yu on May 21, 1989, to fill its editorial column with four large Chinese characters - reading 'deep grief and bitter hatred' - after Beijing ordered the People's Liberation Army to enforce martial law amid pro-democracy protests by students and political activists.
Later, he publicly condemned the central leadership and Communist Party for the bloody crackdown.
Lee was a liberal leftist who advocated reform on the mainland, veteran China watcher Johnny Lau Yui-siu said yesterday.
Lau, who worked for Lee from 1972 to 1989, said: 'Although he was part of the establishment, he never blindly followed instructions from the top and would insist on what he thought was correct.'