Associated Press

Hong Kong, May 19:

A Hong Kong delegate to China’s legislature said today he has submitted his resignation because he could not effectively lobby for the territory’s interests in Beijing. Allen Lee, a member of China’s National People’s Congress, said he felt frustrated he couldn’t convince the lawmaking body to improve its transparency or establish an office in Hong Kong to handle complaints.

“I don’t have the heart to continue with my work as an NPC delegate,” Lee said on the popular radio show Teacup in the Storm. “I can’t achieve the things citizens want me to.”

Lee, who was guest-hosting the show after the departure of regular host Albert Cheng, said he would stop being host because he had been approached by Chinese officials and local businessmen, whom he feared would ask him to quit. Lee said he had declined to meet them.

Lee, a former lawmaker and former chairman of the pro-government Liberal Party, said “the political atmosphere is getting more and more depressing”. “The current polarisation of society is the worst it’s been since I entered politics in 1978,” he said after the show.