I was born when my mother was on holiday in Hong Kong. It was 1938. She was playing mahjong and suddenly she said, “Trouble,” and I was born. Before the Japanes e occupied Hong Kong, my mother took us kids back to the mainland. My father was in the Kuomintang army then. When the war came to end, I was in a village in Guangdong - I remember because I heard lots of firecrackers. Then we returned to Guangzhou and studied there until the Communists crossed the Yangtze River. They were advancing very fast. Then my father took us to Hong Kong when I was 11. We didn’t have too happy a life because my father was one of the few Kuomintang officials who did not take bribes, so there was not much money. Life was not easy. One thing I respected my father for was that he was corruption free. He taught us money was dirty. He was a pharmacist and got a pharmacy doctorate in Lyons, France. He was a contemporary of Zhou Enlai. He had such a colorful life. But once I tell you about my father, you won’t write about me. I’m number si x . My younger brother is number seven. My father had three wives. In those days it was proper to have more than one wife. If you had only one you were pretty weird. I was playing table tennis , billiards, cards - just wasting my time - in what was called the Hong Kong House in London after I had finished part one of my bar exam. Then I saw this pretty girl come in. She’s now my wife. I was called to the bar in 1966 and became Queen’s Counsel in 79. I was Chairman of the Bar for three successive years. Before Margaret Thatcher went to China in September ’82, I was asked to lead a group of professional people to talk about arbitration. That was my first visit back to China. The deputy director of Hong Kong-Macau affairs suddenly said, “The leaders are thinking that the lease in relation to the New Territories will come to an end on the 30th of June, 1997. The leaders believe it is pointless for Hong Kong and Kowloon to remain as they are without the New Territories.” It’s true; we couldn’t have survived without the New Territories. They saw our faces just drop. “There’s nothing to fear," they said. "Our leader’s plan is very simple. Just change the flag, change the government and everything will remain the same." I was the first to speak and without having the benefit of discussing this with my colleagues, I said, “To wish Hong Kong to remain prosperous and stable and also to assume sovereignty over Hong Kong is like the Chinese expression, ‘You cannot have the bear’s paw and fish.’ You can only have one of them.” Li Hou, the deputy director, was very angry. In July 1984 , the government published the consultation document for political development, suggesting 24 elected seats at a time when every seat was appointed. There was going to be a seat for lawyers [now the legal functional constituency seat]. A friend of mine walked into my chambers and said, “Martin, why don’t you run?” I consulted with other lawyers and they all supported me. So I decided to run for a seat and I won. Much later it dawned on me why my friend asked me to be a legislator. He got all my work. I met Margaret Thatcher after she left as leader. She went to Government House one day when Chris Patten was Governor, and she asked to see me. I think she felt pretty bad about how things went. She was, in a way, too naive. Obviously, she was not confident that we would have a bright future under the agreement. That was my impression. The big promise is Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy. We were promised our freedoms would remain intact. Now it’s not Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong. It’s Beijing people ruling Hong Kong. Donald Tsang is mainly responsible for trying to avoid bringing important issues to Legco. He tries to sideline us. For example, the West Kowloon project. If you do it the normal way, the government needs [Legco to approve] the funds to do it. Now they sidestep us. They’ll say, “Anyone who’s interested, do a proposal and if you win, you pay for the complex and you own the land so you control the complex.” That’s in breach of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. I think democracy is the only issue that separates us from Beijing. In a way you can say we’re getting very close, just one more step. But if you look at it from their way, it could be as wide as an ocean. Democracy will come to China, as it will come to Hong Kong. If you put your money on a horse over a long distance, the first time the horses cross the line and your horse is last, does it matter? There’s a long distance to go yet. In this day and age, in the 21st century, how can you be wrong if you support democracy and human rights? My philosophy is so long as I’m fighting for democracy, I’m not lost. I’m sure I’m right and I’m sure I’m going to win. I may not be there when victory comes, but if I don’t give up, I haven’t lost. I will be there in spirit. July 1, 2003 was a particularly happy day for me. People were miserable from Sars and everything. Then on that day, I saw so many people [at the pro-democracy march]. I was standing on a stool and people were waving to me and people close to me squeezed my hand. I saw a smile on every face.