黎智英
One day before the protest march, news broke that there had been an alleged attempt on the lives of two leading political figures - leading Hong Kong democrat Martin Lee and media mogul Jimmy Lai. Lee publicly disclosed that an alleged assassin from the People's Republic of China and a HK accomplice had targeted him in 2008 after seizing a hand gun and ammunition. Jimmy Lai, a long-time critic of Beijing and the owner of "Apple Daily", revealed he was also the target of the assassination attempt. The plot was foiled when police arrested 50-year-old would-be assassin Huang Nan-hua on 14 August 2008. Lee himself said, had the attempt succeeded, it would have been the worst possible nightmare for the Communist Party of China, which wouldn't have known how to handle the situation.