Lee Meng

Lee Meng (; 1926–2012), also romanised as Lee Min, was a Malaysian Chinese communist, guerrilla fighter, and leading member of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). She took part in guerrilla resistance against the Japanese occupation of Malaya as a member of the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) and later joined the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) during the Malayan Emergency to fight against British rule in Malaya. She was described as one of the most capable members of the local communist movement, and was also the leader of the "Kepayang Gang" in Perak.

Background and early life Born Lee Ten Tai in Canton, China in 1926, Lee moved to Ipoh together with her family at the age of five. She worked first as a school teacher in a Chinese school located in Anson Bay (present-day Teluk Intan) in Perak during the British Military Administration shortly after the Japanese surrender on 12 September 1945. In February 1953, a petition was signed by 60 members of the Malayan Parliament to the Sultan of Perak to grant a pardon to Lee since her early petition to appeal the Privy Council had been dismissed by the Judicial Committee. Within the same year, the Hungarian People's Republic government offered to swap British national Edgar Sanders, who had been charged in Budapest for suspected espionage, for her. The British Prime Minister at the time, Winston Churchill initially refused but following the order by the Sultan of Perak who agreed to pardon and persuaded the British authorities, her sentence was commuted and she was released to the People's Republic of China in 1964, after serving her term for 11 years in Taiping prison.

Later life and death Following her banishment to China, Lee was reunited with her mother, with whom she stayed until her mother's death. In 1965, she married Chen Tien, a fellow exiled Malayan Communist insurgent and one of Chin Peng's most trusted aides. Both had intended to move to southern Thailand, but on 3 September 1990, Tien died of lung cancer, which made her indecisive whether she should move or stay. In August 2007, Lee visited Malaysia to meet one of her trial lawyers, Lim, to thank her for securing a commutation of her conviction. Lee died in exile in Guangzhou, China, on 2 June 2012 at the age of 86.