Pius Lee

Pius Lee (born 1937) is an American political power broker and landlord. He was a long-time supporter of Mayor Willie Brown and has served as the commissioner on several governmental commissions in San Francisco, including the San Francisco Port Commission and the San Francisco Police Commission. He serves as the chairman of the Chinese Six Companies and the Chinese Neighborhood Association.

Biography Lee was born in Tin Sam, a village of Doumen, then part of Zhongshan, Guangdong. His grandfather had moved to the United States in the past, where he spent 30 years as a prosperous farmer in Fresno, California, before returning to Doumen and purchasing 40 acres of land to lease to tenant farmers. Lee's father was a teacher in Zhuhai, where Lee spent most of his childhood in Chen Sang village. Lee's mother died when he was young, after which his father remarried, through which Lee had three younger half-siblings.

In 1949, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lee's family were classified as small landlords. Due to this, Lee's father arranged for his family's relocation to Portuguese Macau through the father of one of his students. In summer 1951, when Lee was 14, the Lee family, consisting of his parents and three elder siblings, along with several other emigrants, were brought to the border village of Kwan Chap, from where the group swam from Zhuhai to Macau. The process took 15 minutes, with their guide returning to mainland China after helping Lee's father, who could not swim.

As part of the Great Society program, Lee was appointed a member of the Economic Development Committee by San Francisco Mayor John Shelley, representing Chinatown, which had received $500,000 in funding as a low-income area. Lee In 1966, he became the head of the committee and seeing the success of the program, Lee decided to go into politicis. He first planned to attend evening classes for law school, but as he lacked financial means, he instead went to real estate school. A local real estate agent paid Lee's tuition in exchange for Lee working at his firm for a year after graduation. In 1968, after receiving his real estate license, Lee opened his own business, California Realty & Land Inc. He sold homes to Chinese families, most from Hong Kong, in the Richmond District and Sunset District and built a real estate portfolio consisting of properties across San Francisco, from the Marina District to Chinatown. Among the Lee's Chinese customers was Hung Chap Man, who was able to secure residency with his children through his bought property.

Political career Lee was appointed president of the San Francisco-Taipei Sister City Committee by Mayor Dianne Feinstein. As president, he began the effort to build the Golden Gate Pavilion in Golden Gate Park in 1981. In 1992, Lee organized a gun buyback program while serving as a police commissioner that gathered approximately 1,600 guns.

Lee announced his retirement from real estate and politics in March 2024.

Political influence Lee praised the Democratic Party for their policies toward minorities and the impoverished but also admitted that it is impractical to be a Republican in San Francisco.

Lee is the chairman of the Chinese Six Companies, which holds significant political influence in San Francisco Chinatown, and the Chinese Neighborhood Association. The two organizations lobbied the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to ban marijuana ads on MUNI buses and proposed a 50-dispensary cap in San Francisco. Lee and Pak both opposed a proposed recall of Mayor Ed Lee in 2016.