When young reporter Emily Lau Wai-hing turned the tables on Britain's then prime minister Margaret Thatcher in a news conference she became an overnight celebrity among her peers.
'There is still television footage of it floating around,' said Ms Lau, now a veteran Hong Kong legislator and former Far Eastern Economic Review reporter.
'I took her to task over delivering 5 million people into the hands of a communist dictatorship.'
Her fiery challenge earned her instant respect among fellow Review reporters.
Ms Lau yesterday told of her sadness at the demise of the once-feared weekly publication.
'During the 1980s, the Review was very often quoted and many people read it but it has suffered over the years ... until it cannot continue to exist,' she said. The Frontier founder said she was proud to be among a roll call of some of Asia's biggest names who worked for the 58-year-old publication. Others included former Central Policy Unit head Leo Goodstadt, who was the Review's deputy editor and wrote under the pseudonym Marco Polo in the Asia Inc column of the 1970s.
