Lee Meng

{{Short description|Malaysian Chinese communist guerrilla (1926–2012)}} {{family name hatnote|Lee (李)|lang=Chinese}} {{Use British English|date=October 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Lee Meng | image = Outdoor portrait of Lee Min, leader of the communist Kepayang Gang in the Ipoh district in 1951 (AWM 4281801).JPG | caption = Lee in 1951 | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pronunciation = | birth_name = Lee Ten Tai | birth_date = {{birth date text|1926}} | birth_place = Canton, Republic of China | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2012|06|02|1926}} | death_place = Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China | burial_place =  | burial_coordinates =  | nationality = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | political_party = Communist Party of Malaya | movement = Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (1942–1945)<br />Malayan National Liberation Army (1948–1952) | criminal_charge = Illegal possession of a weapon | criminal_penalty = Death, later reduced to imprisonment | criminal_status = Commuted, released to China in 1964 | spouse = {{marriage|Chen Tien|1965|1990|end=died}} | partner =  | children = | parents =  | mother =  | father =  | relatives = | family = | awards = | module = {{Infobox Chinese | child = yes | c = 李明 | p = Lǐ Míng | j = {{Tone superscript|Lei5 Ming4}} | poj = Lí Bêng | tl = Lí Bîng  | altname = Birth name | c2 = 李天泰 | p2 = Lǐ Tiāntài | j2 = {{Tone superscript|Lei5 Tin1-taai3}} }} }}

'''Lee Meng''' ({{lang-zh|c=李明}}; 1926–2012), also romanised as '''Lee Min''', was a Malaysian Chinese communist, guerrilla fighter, and leading member of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).<ref name="Cold War barter">{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890472,00.html|title=COMMUNISTS: Cold War Barter |magazine=Time |date=9 March 1953 |access-date=3 October 2019 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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.<ref name="KhooLubis2005">{{cite book|last1=Salma Nasution|first1=Khoo|last2=Lubis|first2=Abdur-Razzaq|title=Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysia's Modern Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cgsZvl1zTXgC&pg=PA313|year=2005|publisher=Areca Books|isbn=978-983-42113-0-1|page=313}}</ref><ref name="Comber2008">{{cite book|last=Comber|first=Leon|author-link=Leon Comber|title=Malaya's Secret Police 1945-60: The Role of the Special Branch in the Malayan Emergency|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cIz9Cfk0T0MC&pg=PA226|year=2008|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies|isbn=978-981-230-829-0|pages=226–234}}</ref>

== Background and early life == Born '''Lee Ten Tai''' ({{lang|zh|李天泰}}) in Canton, China in 1926, Lee moved to Ipoh together with her family at the age of five.<ref name="Lee Meng biography">{{cite web|url=http://www.nlb.gov.sg/biblioasia/2018/04/09/hunting-down-the-malayan-mata-hari/|title=Hunting Down the Malayan Mata Hari|last=Tan|first=Ronnie|publisher=National Library Board, Singapore|date=9 April 2018|accessdate=2 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504010100/http://www.nlb.gov.sg/biblioasia/2018/04/09/hunting-down-the-malayan-mata-hari/|archive-date=4 May 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/> Lee had joined the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) at the age of 16 when she was recruited by a school teacher in 1942. Her father was unemployed and lived with her uncle and aunt while her mother was later banished back to Mainland China by the British colonial authorities in 1950 after being arrested for involvement in communist activities.<ref name="KhooLubis2005"/><ref name="Lee Meng biography"/>

== Underground activities == Prior to her recruitment, she led the party's underground area committee of Ipoh during the Japanese occupation of British Malaya where she had a reputation as a cunning fighter and plot organiser and was known as one of the most ruthless members of the CPM in Ipoh.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/> She also operated Central Committee communication posts which co-ordinated top secret communist communication networks with links to other states such as Pahang, Selangor, Penang and as far to Singapore.<ref name="KhooLubis2005"/> A majority of her followers were female, both young and old with legal cover occupations and throughout these activities, she helped any pregnant wives of high ranking communists in Perak by sheltering them in the houses of selected relatives.<ref name="KhooLubis2005"/>

Throughout the Malayan Emergency, she controlled many of the major armed units in the town area, including the notorious Kepayang Gang along with Special Mobile Squad (SMS) that were reported as being responsible for many of the assassinations and grenade attacks that were carried out between 1948 until 1951.<ref name="KhooLubis2005"/><ref name="Comber2008"/> Although the Special Branch was unable to prove Lee's involvement in any of the attacks, she held the utmost responsibility as most of the units were under her control.<ref name="Comber2008"/> Many captured or surrendered communist guerrillas named her as the one who ordered a number of executions against collaborators, which were carried out by Communist Special Service squads. She was described by the communist party's leader Chin Peng as a dedicated, active and brave woman, though reckless in her operational style.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/>

== Events leading to her capture == Irene Lee, whose husband, Detective Corporal Jimmy Loke, was assassinated by communist guerrillas in Penang in April 1951, decided to join the Malayan police force where she was promoted to Detective-Inspector, and was subsequently posted to Special Branch headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/> Irene Lee's work as a detective led to the British colonial government acquiring information concerning the working of the Chinese communist party, which led eventually to Lee Meng's capture by the colonial forces.

=== Manhunt and subsequent arrest === Following a raid on a communist guerrilla camp in Selangor in early February 1952, documents from the abandoned camp revealed the identity of a Chinese woman serving as a courier member from Singapore into Johor which identified as Ah Shu or Ah Soo, a Chinese school teacher and the wife of Wong Fook Kwang (Tit Fung), the leader of the Communist-controlled Workers Protection Corps in Singapore.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/> The woman's husband was responsible for the killings of pineapple and rubber merchant Lim Teck Kin and several others including a policeman, a factory supervisor and a manager at Hock Lee Bus Company in Singapore. Once the identity of Ah Shu was identified, Irene was sent by her department into Singapore in February 1952 to track the woman and follow a trail that would ultimately lead to Lee's arrest and her eventual banishment to mainland China.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/>

Lee was captured by the British Malayan police force in Ipoh in July 1952, tried for having a hand grenade in her possession and sentenced to death for her responsibility in issuing orders for several murders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19520828-1.2.23|title=Pretty Girl Gave Murder Orders Court Told|publisher=The Straits Times|via=National Library Board, Singapore|date=28 August 1952|accessdate=3 October 2019|page=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/record?catid=260624&catln=6|title=Representations about the sentence of death passed on Lee Ten Tai, or Lee Meng, by a Malayan court for unlawful possession of arms: report of commuting of death sentence (CO 1022/6)|publisher=The National Archives (United Kingdom)|year=1953|accessdate=3 October 2019}}</ref><ref name="Burleigh2013">{{cite book|last=Burleigh|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Burleigh|title=Small Wars, Far Away Places: The Genesis of the Modern World 1945–65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ONUxC2fODmgC&pg=PA193|date=11 April 2013|publisher=Pan Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-77150-5|page=193}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19530220-1.2.3|title=COMET Will Bring Mercy Appeal|publisher=The Straits Times|via=National Library Board, Singapore|date=20 February 1953|accessdate=3 October 2019|page=1}}</ref> 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. <ref name="Cold War barter"/><ref name="Comber2008"/><ref name="Burleigh2013"/><ref>{{cite journal|title=Diplomacy by Show Trial: The Espionage Case of Edgar Sanders and British-Hungarian Relations, 1949–53|last=Bátonyi|first=Gábor|author-link=Gabor Batonyi|journal=The Slavonic and East European Review|year=2015|volume=93|issue=4|pages=692–731|doi=10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.93.4.0692}}</ref> 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,<ref name="Burleigh2013"/> along with the efforts of Lim Phaik Gan, a British-born Malayan woman lawyer and diplomat,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19710722&id=hCcRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T-EDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6657,4668560|title=Malaysia names woman envoy to United Nations|last=Rosenblum|first=Mort|author-link=Mort Rosenblum|publisher=Eugene Register-Guard|date=22 July 1971|accessdate=3 October 2019}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1952/nov/19/lee-ten-tai-trial|title=Lee Ten Tai (Trial)|publisher=Hansard|date=19 November 1952|accessdate=3 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n14/neal-ascherson/wedgism|title=Wedgism|last=Ascherson|first=Neal|author-link=Neal Ascherson|journal=London Review of Books|volume=31|number=14|date=23 July 2009|accessdate=3 October 2019}}</ref>

== Later life and death == Following her banishment to China, Lee was reunited with her mother, with whom she stayed until her mother's death.<ref name="Chin2003">{{cite book|last=Peng|first=Chin|author-link=Chin Peng|title=My Side of History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UaluAAAAMAAJ&q=chen+tien+lee+meng|year=2003|publisher=Media Masters|isbn=978-981-04-8693-8|page=502}}</ref> In 1965, she married Chen Tien, a fellow exiled Malayan Communist insurgent and one of Chin Peng's most trusted aides.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/> 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.<ref name="Chin2003"/> In August 2007, Lee visited Malaysia to meet one of her trial lawyers, Lim, to thank her for securing a commutation of her conviction.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/> Lee died in exile in Guangzhou, China, on 2 June 2012 at the age of 86.<ref name="Lee Meng biography"/>

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Meng}} Category:1926 births Category:Malaysian people of Cantonese descent Category:2012 deaths Category:Malaysian exiles Category:Malaysian communists Category:Malaysian people of Chinese descent Category:History of Malaysia (1945–1963) Category:Malaysian women in warfare Category:Malaysian prisoners sentenced to death Category:People convicted of illegal possession of weapons Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by the United Kingdom Category:Women sentenced to death

Lee Meng

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