Dorothy Liu

Dorothy Liu Yiu-chu
Hong Kong Deputy of the NPC
In office 1982–1997
Personal details
Born	(1934-07-08)8 July 1934 Hong Kong
Died	31 March 1997(1997-03-31) (aged 62) Hong Kong
Alma mater	University of Hong Kong University of Oxford
Occupation	Politician, solicitor

Dorothy Liu Yiu-chu (8 July 1934 – 31 March 1997) was a prominent Hong Kong pro-Beijing politician and lawyer. She was well-known for her independent and outspoken image, as she was one of the few members of the pro-Beijng camp who was willing to stand up to Beijing.

Early career

Liu was born in Hong Kong on 8 July 1934. Her father, Dr. Liu Yan-tak was on good terms with senior officials of the People's Republic of China and took her to meetings with name. She was named Dorothy because the initial letter D is the fourth in the alphabet, and Dorothy was the fourth of the six children. She later dropped her English name as to emphasis her Chineseness, but it was still commonly used in the local media and she was nicknamed Dotty, partly because it evoked her eccentric character.

Liu was graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 1956 and later the Oxford University. She started as student of English literature and then switched to law. She returned to Hong Kong and began practising law in the 1960s and was senior partner of the Liu, Chan & Lam law firm. Liu declared her pro-Beijing convictions during the 1967 Leftist riots, although she disagreed the terrorist tactics of the Leftists. Liu was taking a risk by expressing her pro-Beijing sympathies as the colonial government and the most of the public were anti-Communists.

Politics

In the 1980s, Liu was invited to join the preparatory works for setting up the Hong Kong constitution after 1997 when it was handed over to Chinese rule. She was member of the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee in 1985 and was selected as Hong Kong deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) in 1982 which she served until her death in 1997.

During the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Liu supported the Beijing government to impose martial law in Beijing, but she condemned the bloody suppression on 4 June. In the annual NPC meeting early the following year, Liu attacked a decision to purge a senior Chinese deputy for his role in the unrest. In 1991, she called for a minute's silence for the victims of Tiananmen at the NPC meeting. It was considered rebellious in the hard-line political climate.

Liu was trusted by the Beijing authorities with her genuine patriotism. She once told a local newspaper "[w]hen it's a question of conflict between Britain and China, I have made it clear I will, without reservation, always be on China's side." However, in her later years, she became increasingly critical Beijing's policy on Hong Kong. "There will be fluctuating times: when the central government [in Peking] may be more dictatorial towards Hong Kong; may fail to allow us to have the high degree of autonomy promised to us," she warned in a newspaper interview published in December 1996.

Liu was also critical of the onetime supporters of the colonial administration who switched allegiance as the handover approached, who she called "old batteries". She also wept when seated next to a former top adviser to the British, Sir Chung Sze-yuen, at a committee meeting for making arrangements for the transition. However, her resentment was seen as aiming as much at Beijing, for welcoming such people. Although she opposed to the last governor Chris Patten's political reform for the 1995 Legislative election, Liu also questioned the legitimacy of Beijing decision to replace Hong Kong's 1995 elected legislature with an appointed Provisional Legislative Council. She warned there would be "lots of puppets" in the new government. She was left out of the Preparatory Committee for the HKSAR as she became increasingly critical to Beijing.

Liu had pancreatic cancer in her later life and became ill since October 1996 and was admitted to the hospital in March 1997. She lapsed into a coma on 29 March and died at 2:50 a.m. in Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong on 31 March at the age of 62, just three months before the handover of Hong Kong. She was married once and had one son. However, Liu asked for her ashes to be scattered in San Francisco, where Edward Cheng, her only son, lived, as she said she did not want her remains to "take up land in China, which is precious to poor farmers."

Liu had a brother born in 1931, Benjamin Liu Tsz-ming, who was a Judge of of the Court of Appeal, died on 16 October 2013.