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 Christine Lee is one of the most prominent figures in British Chinese society today. She is the founder of the renowned British Chinese law firm Christine Lee & Co; Chief Legal Advisor to the Chinese Embassy; chairwoman of the North London Chinese Association; and leader of the ‘Integration of British Chinese into politics' campaign, also known as the ‘BC Project'.
When you first meet her, she's passionate, welcoming, no nonsense and straight to the point, with a sincere and professional manner. Knowing her a bit more, you realise she's forever busy, dividing her time between London, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. She works hard, sometimes without eating anything for the whole day. Her dedication to Chinese issues is admirable; her determination for anything she sets her eye on is remarkable.
Born in Hong Kong, Christine immigrated to the UK when she was a young girl, when her father became one of the first Chinese who chose to settle in Northern Ireland. Her father's experience has instilled into her a pioneer spirit, and many of the first mainstream migrants from Hong Kong who remember those pioneer days therefore have a special rapport with her.
Christine believes that her background has placed her in a unique position to bridge the gap between the older established Hong Kong Chinese community and the younger British-born Chinese population.
At age 12, she was sent to a girls only boarding school, where she was the only Chinese among 66 pupils there. At the beginning, it was tough for her. Like many minority students, she was bullied at school. However, she realised that there were also other girls being bullied at school, and she organised them together to unite against the bullies. According to the ancient Chinese saying, while it is easy to bend one chopstick, it is impossible to bend a bundle of ten chopsticks. Since forming the union, she realised the importance and power of uniting to fight for justice and equality.
 One of her main projects - ‘Integration of British Chinese into politics' (the ‘BC Project') was launched on the 31st October in the House of Lords with Lady Anelay as the sponsoring peer. She launched the project with support from the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Chinese Embassy.
The project has been in the making since 2005, when she embarked on the campaign against the Immigration Asylum and Nationality bill, in which, amongst other measures, the government retrospectively increased the number of years before which permanent residence can be granted from four to five years. This left many Work Permit and Highly Skilled Migrant Visa holders, who had made long term commitments to the UK with an understanding that they were able to then settle in the UK, in line with immigration laws at the time, suddenly being shown the door. Another measure of the bill seriously affects the ability of the Chinese catering industry to hire chefs and fill staff shortages.
Christine explained: "as the co-ordinator of the IAN campaign, we had meetings all over the UK, in lots of different towns and cities, where we met with local Chinese community leaders and members, explaining the Bill and its aims and effects. Meeting after meeting, we insisted that we needed to use the political avenues open to us in order to have our say.
"The Chinese are generally a reserved community who have never before made public complaints to the British Government. However, for the first time in the history of the Chinese Community here, they felt a strong need to come before Parliament and enter into the public domain to register their grievous objection and strongly protest this Government Bill.
While in fact the Chinese community in the UK has protested in the past - the foot and mouth controversy being one example (see http://www.dimsum.co.uk/foot--mouth/ for Dimsum's coverage at the time) - such examples are certainly few and far between.
As time went on, the campaign's message began to get through. 600 organisations joined the campaign and the petition was signed by over 10,000 people. The campaign was able to mobilize mass support from British Chinese to write to their MPs, protesting against the Bill, as it would have wide repercussions on the British Chinese Community. As part of the campaign, Christine organised a protest outside the Houses of Parliament.
It began to establish a platform that gave Chinese communities in Britain a collective political voice. As the local and national press picked up on this emerging political consciousness, the feeling that the Chinese community were being noticed inspired many more to get involved.
Christine believes that Chinese people do in fact care about political issues, but either do not believe that they can make a difference, or do not know how the law making process works, and therefore how to influence it. Her goal in the BC Project is to create a group to motivate the Chinese community to believe that their views are important, and provide them with a political education to enable and empower them to understand and access the political process fully.
However, she believes that the problem does not just lie with the Chinese community:
"On the other hand, the government doesn't involve the British Chinese in their legislation process - there is a lack of consultation with Chinese communities. The Chinese have been in the UK for 150 years. It is the third largest ethnic minority group in the country. The Chinese catering trade alone contributes £1.5 billion to the UK treasury annually. Yet there are no established Chinese voices in British politics.
"We do not feel that our place in Britain has been recognised by the British Government. Despite repeated attempts to engage public policy on issues such as immigration, consultation, communication, the Government has remained silent. We need to take action and send Chinese people into the forefront of politics to act as representatives for Chinese people in Britain, so we have a voice and will no longer be ignored and unheard.
"Unless there are greater Chinese political representation at all levels of public life, British democracy can never truly address the aspirations of Chinese Communities."
For more information see:
http://www.christinelee.org.uk/
http://www.christine-lee.co.uk/
http://vbsi.org.uk/
http://www.bcproject.org.uk/
Update
In the latest development of the IAN campaign, Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, has written to the Home Office asking it not to apply the reforms retrospectively until the legality of the move has been clarified.
Mr Green wrote: "We believe it is unfair that skilled and useful workers who have made a commitment to this country should have the rules of the game changed after they have arrived here.
"It is of course proper for the government to make changes to the qualification procedure for any class of immigrant, but not in the unfair and retrospective way which applied in this case.
"Since the Commission for Racial Equality has raised a new point about the failures in consultation before these changes were introduced, I would ask that all measures affecting those who were already in the UK when the changes came into force should be suspended while the legality of the changes is tested."
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