Top Hong Kong officials, politicians pay last respects at funeral of former security chief Ambrose Lee
- Ambrose Lee, who served as secretary for security from 2003 to 2012, died in his sleep on August 14, aged 73
- Among the mourners were Chief Executive John Lee and former leaders Leung Chun-ying and Carrie Lam
Top officials, political heavyweights and senior officers from the disciplined services paid their last respects on Monday at the funeral of Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong, Hong Kong’s longest-serving security chief.
Lee, who served as secretary for security from 2003 to 2012 and steered the government’s response to chaotic protests at a trade summit and a deadly hostage crisis involving residents visiting the Philippines, died in his sleep on August 14, aged 73.
According to the memorial booklet, he felt unwell the evening before his death, but his condition had eased before he went to bed.
Former Hong Kong security minister Ambrose Lee, 73, dies in his sleep
Former chief justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li and pro-Beijing heavyweight Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai also attended the service, while many others sent wreaths. The coffin was later taken to Diamond Hill Crematorium.
Lee is survived by his wife, two children and four grandchildren. His son, Glen Lee Lam-yan, was an artist for local broadcaster TVB for more than two decades.
In the memorial booklet, which included family photos and drawings, a granddaughter said Ambrose Lee had been her role model ever since she could remember and her caddie on the golf course.
“My mum always says that our heavenly father holds each of our report cards, and we cannot go to the heavenly family with a bad report. I believe that you must have gone to heaven as a star student,” she wrote.
“I also hope that you will be proud of me when you peek at my grade sheet next to the heavenly father one day!”
Big names including ex-security chief Ambrose Lee join chorus of criticism against Hong Kong university students
Another granddaughter recalled how Lee would buy everything she loved to eat and wanted even when he did not spend a lot of money on his own clothes.
“You always try your best to help me to solve my problems whenever I am sad. Although you do not say sweet words or tell me you love me, I know that you always encourage and love me,” she said.
Lee, born in 1948, studied at Kowloon Technical School and graduated from the University of Hong Kong’s department of electrical and electronic engineering. Further studies took him to the University of Oxford in Britain, Tsinghua University in Beijing and Harvard University in the United States.
He joined the civil service in 1974 as an immigration officer and rose through the ranks to become assistant director in 1995 and deputy director two years later. He served as director of immigration from 1998 to 2002.
In 2002, Lee was appointed commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the following year joined the Tung Chee-hwa administration as secretary for security.
He replaced Ip, who stepped down after an estimated half a million people took to the streets to protest over a proposed national security law, forcing the government to abandon the idea.
Lee was security minister during some of the biggest crises to confront the government in the past 25 years, including protests by South Korean farmers at a World Trade Organization summit in 2005 that led police to shut down some downtown areas.
In 2010, eight Hong Kong tourists and their guide, a compatriot, were killed in Manila after an 11-hour stand-off between police and a disgruntled former officer who had hijacked the group’s tour bus. The mismanaged hostage crisis badly damaged relations between the Philippines and Hong Kong.
August 23, 2010: 7 Hong Kong tourists and guide killed in Manila bus hostage crisis
After stepping down as minister, Lee served as a deputy to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, from 2013 to 2018 and often made headlines for controversial remarks on current affairs.
In 2016, he described young people involved in the Mong Kok riot, where a crackdown on unlicensed hawkers at Lunar New Year escalated into a night of mob violence in the district, as “beasts” who had lost their conscience.
