in 1985, the beijing government invited szeto to sit on the hong kong basic law drafting committee to draft the basic law of hong kong, the mini-constitution of the special administrative region after 1997. he met another like-minded barrister martin lee in the drafting committee with whom he began to push for further democratisation in the following years. in the first indirect elections to the legislative council, szeto was elected through the teaching functional constituency with martin lee who got elected through the legal sector.