The first thing people think about Lee Cheuk-yan is not the positions he held. It’s his character.
Optimistic, adaptable, and respectful to everyone, regardless of rank or opinion. This is Lee Cheuk-yan or Ah Yan, as many affectionately call him. Lee has a special gift: he makes people feel seen, heard, and valued. Through this, he inspires courage in others, especially workers, to stand up for their rights and dignity.
Lee showed these qualities in every role he took on in his life: trade union organiser, lawmaker, democracy advocate, international trade union movement leader, and above all, comrade.
Those who know him also remember the lighter, more personal side of Ah Yan. He loves to cook, taking joy in preparing meals for family and friends. He also has the talent for finding the best local food wherever he goes. Sharing food, like sharing struggle, is for him a way of building community.
Lee began his life in the labour movement in the early 1980s, working with the labour advocacy organisation, Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee. As its chief executive, he formed the Trade Union Education Centre to promote exchanges and solidarity with Asian and international trade unions, demonstrating how deeply he values international solidarity.
From the start, he believes that trade unions must be grounded in independence, democracy, and justice. These principles helped give birth to the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) in 1994, where Lee served for years as general secretary. Under his leadership, HKCTU became the only independent, democratic trade union centre on Chinese soil.
But Lee was never a leader who managed struggle from above. He always stood alongside workers.
Ah Man, former Chairperson of a trade union in Hong Kong, remembers meeting Ah Yan for the first time during the bar benders’ strike in 2007, when Lee was a labour member of the Legislative Council. “I thought he just came to say empty words to us,” Ah Man recalls. “He didn’t. He came to give us genuine solidarity.”
That strike lasted 36 days in the middle of summer. The striking workers faced public denunciation, employer pressure, and deep uncertainty. Ah Yan joined the workers in rallies to the Government Offices, carrying steel bars on his shoulders under typhoons and the scorching sun. The unpleasant weather did not faze Lee. Rather, drenched in sweat, he led the striking workers in chanting the slogan, “Hang in there until the end!”
“I deeply felt that he was truly standing with us,” Ah Man says. “Ah Yan taught us what solidarity is with his persistence. He led us to believe that workers have power through his actions.”
Years later, the image remains vivid for Ah Man: Ah Yan, drenched in sweat, steel bars on his shoulders, joking, cheering, and urging workers on. “I will never forget that Ah Yan was with us in our struggle that summer.”
On the streets and picket lines, Lee was a principled leader who put workers’ interests at the forefront. Inside the legislature, Lee carried the same convictions. From 1995 to 2016, he served as an elected lawmaker, representing workers first through HKCTU and later through the Labour Party, which he co-founded. He fought for collective bargaining, minimum wage legislation, maternity protection, and standard working hours. Victories were often partial or delayed. Some were rolled back. But Lee never treated setbacks as reasons to retreat.
“Without Ah Yan, Hong Kong’s working class might still be selling their labour at whatever price the employers offer in desperation – that is, without a legal minimum standard,” former HKCTU Chairperson, Joe Wong, reflects. “Now, having a legislation on standard working hours in Hong Kong seems to be a distant dream. We miss Ah Yan very much – for he always says and believes that labour has a price, and it shall not be determined out of employers' mercy,” Joe said.
Beyond Hong Kong’s borders, Lee played another crucial role: a solidarity builder across different nationalities. His openness and flexibility made him deeply trusted internationally. He connected trade unions across regions and reminded movements that working class struggles are interconnected, underscoring the importance of international solidarity. In hard times, his optimism gave people strength – not the shallow kind, but the courageous kind that survives repression.
Lee is not just a trade union leader; he is also a stalwart of democracy. Since 2002, he chaired the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China (HK Alliance). Year after year, every June 4th, Lee insisted on justice for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, on truth in the face of enforced silence. Even when remembrance became dangerous, he remained with candle in hand, leading the annual candlelight vigil for the victims and reminding the people of Hong Kong to never forget.
After 2019, the cost of this lifetime of commitment became painfully clear. Following the struggle of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and the imposition of the National Security Law, the space for independent unions and civil society collapsed. HKCTU was forced to disband. The HK Alliance was dismantled. Lee was arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned for peaceful assembly and later charged with “subversion,” carrying the threat of life imprisonment.
Still, those who know him are certain of one thing.
Matt, a former HKCTU staff member wrote a message to Ah Yan:
“Ah Yan, we all know the unjust and shameful prison can never imprison your heart of fighting for freedom and justice. May you overcome the absurd and ruthless political persecution with humour and optimism, of which you have plenty.”
True enough, prison did not extinguish Lee’s fire. If anything, it revealed how deeply his commitment for the struggle for democracy burns. In his mitigation on 17 November 2021, Lee said:
“I thanked God in my prayers, dedicated myself to be His instrument of Justice, and committed my life to the struggle for democracy to Hong Kong and China. This is my pledge to the people of Hong Kong who rescued me and the people of Beijing who implored us to tell the truth of what happened in the Square to the world… Since then, I have always engaged in the mission of the Hong Kong Alliance and attended the June Fourth candlelight vigil every year until this. In prison, I continued to honour their memory by fasting for a day and by a lit match.”
Today, Lee Cheuk-yan is behind bars. But his fighting spirit remains alive. His passion endures – a brave trade unionist and labour rights defender, a progressive lawmaker, an unyielding democracy advocate. His humour survives. His optimism endures. His belief that workers have power and dignity continues to move people long after the rallies have dispersed.
These are the same people who are mobilising to campaign for his freedom. These are the same people who once heard him chant and now send the words back to him, steady and unbroken, across prison walls and political darkness:
Hang in there until the end!
.jpg)
.png)
.png)
.png)
%20(1).png)
.jpg)
.png)
.png)
.jpg)
%201.svg)
