Facing the Invisible Tank: A Dentist Charged for Remembering Tiananmen

Japan Forward

15-07-2025

In this five-part series, JAPAN Forward profiles individuals in Hong Kong who resist the sweeping effects of the National Security Law. Part 4 tells the story of dentist Lee Ying-chi, who faces charges for commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre online. Drawing on her experiences — from providing medical aid in China to supporting victims' families in Hong Kong — Lee offers a rare insight into the challenges faced by those whose voices are being silenced.
As I stepped out of the building, I caught a glimpse of a shadow slipping by. I turned the corner into a narrow alley and stopped short. A man who had been tailing me brushed past. His face was blank, but his eyes gave him away. He flinched slightly, surprised I had stopped. I watched him walk off.
"Well, someone's working hard," I muttered with a wry smile. Still, I was rattled. It was one thing to know the woman I had just met was under surveillance. Now it seemed I had become a target too.
I met dentist Lee Ying-chi in a rundown building in Kowloon. She was arrested in May 2024 on suspicion of violating Hong Kong's Safeguarding National Security Ordinance and is currently out on bail.
A devout Christian, she was charged for a social media post commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Authorities deemed it seditious, accusing her of inciting hatred toward the Chinese and Hong Kong governments.
The ordinance, enacted in March 2024, was introduced to supplement the Hong Kong National Security Law. If convicted, Lee faces up to seven years in prison. A woman commemorating the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown is taken away by security officials in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay on June 4, 2023. (©Kyodo)
"Honestly, on July 1, 1997, when Hong Kong was handed back from Britain to China, I was happy," Lee told me. "I thought we were finally returning to our homeland."
Lee studied medicine in Hong Kong and New Zealand. Since 1998, she had worked on medical aid projects in Kunming, China. She saw herself unquestionably as Chinese. But her perspective began to shift during the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, which struck while she was living in Kunming.
"The way the Chinese media and Hong Kong media covered it was completely different," she said. Through Hong Kong newspapers online, she learned — shocked — that collapsed schools and dead children were the result of substandard construction. Grieving mothers were demanding answers.
When she returned to Hong Kong in 2009, she joined a protest march calling for truth about Tiananmen. She thought of the mothers and wives of the victims who were still asking why their loved ones had to die. Their pain echoed what she had witnessed in Sichuan. Lee soon began supporting the families of Tiananmen victims.
As June 4 approached this year — the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre — Lee realized she was being followed. While out, she was frequently surrounded by police and had her belongings searched. Officers warned her, "Don't go to Causeway Bay. If you do, it's a year in prison."
Causeway Bay is home to Victoria Park, where Tiananmen memorial vigils had been held for over 30 years. But since the National Security Law took effect in 2020, police have shut down the gatherings.
On June 4, 2025, Lee rode a tram past Victoria Park. "I didn't go in," she said. "I just passed by." It was a quiet act of defiance. Later that evening, she went to a waterfront area overlooking the lights of Hong Kong Island. The place was crowded with Chinese tourists. Rain began to fall. Lee pulled a recorder from her bag.
Just after 7 PM, she played Flowers of Freedom , a protest song once sung during the Victoria Park vigils:
But there is a dream, it will not die, remember it
No matter how hard the rain falls, freedom still will bloom
There is a dream, it will not die, remember this
She didn't sing aloud — only in her heart. As she stood there, she thought about Hong Kong's future and how quickly the city was being absorbed into China.
Lee once told a friend who had emigrated, "Don't feel sorry for those of us who stayed in Hong Kong. I'm not alone. I'm walking this path with others — my fellow travelers [同路人]." Reporters and police gathered in front of the court where the trial of pro-democracy activists was held for violating the Hong Kong National Security Law. May 30, 2024, Hong Kong. (©Kyodo)
She had often worked with the pro-democracy League of Social Democrats. The party officially disbanded on June 29, 2025. Even with it gone, she remains a fellow traveler with its former members. Her commitment, she said, hasn't changed.
During our interview, I noticed a tattoo on Lee's arm. When I asked about it, she smiled brightly. Inked in slangy Cantonese were the words:
"I freaking love Hong Kong!"
The phrase first appeared on a banner on July 1, 2020 — the day after the National Security Law came into effect. As the city slipped into darkness, the words rose up from the streets. Not a polished slogan, but something raw and desperate from the heart.
In the years since, many people have buried those feelings deep inside. But Lee etched them onto her skin. As a Hong Konger, she refuses to forget the dream that will never die.
( Read the article in Japanese . )
Author: Kinya Fujimoto, The Sankei Shimbun