being one of the two icons of the hong kong democracy movement alongside martin lee, szeto played an instrumental role in the emergence of the pro-democracy camp. entering the politics as a trade unionist for teachers, szeto founded the influential hong kong professional teachers' union and was first elected to the colonial legislature through the newly created teaching functional constituency in 1985. he and martin lee became the two pro-democrats appointed to the hong kong basic law drafting committee by the beijing government in 1985 until the duo resigned in the wake of the tiananmen protests of 1989 which were bloodily suppressed by beijing.