Hong Kong dentist says she lost job after staging solo demo on the 2019 mob attack anniversary

A Hong Kong dentist has said she was fired days after she staged a solo protest on the seventh anniversary of a notorious mob attack in 2019 that took place in Yuen Long. Activist Lee Ying-chi (left) at Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2026. Photo: Supplied. Dentist Lee Ying-chi said on Thursday that she was terminated with immediate effect last week, three days after she brought a watermelon to Yuen Long MTR station to mark the attacks which took place during the 2019 protests and unrest. One of the alleged attackers from the white-clad gang was a local farmer nicknamed “Watermelon Man,” who was arrested but not prosecuted following the incident, according to local media. On July 21, 2019, over 100 rod-wielding men stormed Yuen Long MTR station, leaving 45 people injured – including journalists, protesters, commuters and pro-democracy lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting. Police were criticised for responding slowly to the incident, with some officers seen leaving the scene or interacting with the white-clad men. The official account of the incident evolved over a year, with the authorities eventually claiming it was a “gang fight” between the white-clad men and a black-clad group. Pro-democracy protesters commonly wore black during the city’s 2019 protests and unrest. Lee told podcast Waiting Bird on Thursday that, following her protest on the anniversary, she was called to meet with HR at her dental clinic where she was invited to resign. Activist Lee Ying-chi outside West Kowloon Law Courts on Monday, January 12, ahead of the mitigation hearing for media tycoon Jimmy Lai and eight other defendants. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. “They asked me to sympathise with their situation,” Lee said in Cantonese. “They said the organisation is big, and if they don’t do this, it would affect the organisation’s partnership with the government.” Lee said she refused and was told she was fired with immediate effect. She said she was not allowed to pack her personal belongings, which would be mailed to her later on. The dentist said her employer accused her of failing to report to the company her conviction linked to an unauthorised fundraising campaign and the public display of posters. In June, Lee and three pro-democracy activists from the now-disbanded League of Social Democrats were fined between HK$1,000 and HK$6,600 over a total of 12 offences. A termination letter, however, listed “unsatisfactory performance” as the reason for the dismissal, according to Lee. Second firing Lee called her firing “groundless,” saying she had never been the subject of patient complaints at the clinic, where she worked two days per week. The mob attack on July 21, 2019 in Yuen Long MTR station. Photo: Screenshot. She also revealed that last week’s firing was the second time she had been dismissed in recent years. She said she was fired by another clinic after being arrested for alleged sedition in May 2024 under the city’s homegrown national security law known as Article 23. Lee has not yet been prosecuted in the sedition case, in which national security police arrested eight people ahead of the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing. The decision to terminate her immediately disregarded patients’ interests, Lee said, adding that she was considering early retirement as many dental groups and NGOs have government partnerships. Police arrested 69 people over the Yuen Long attacks and 22 were charged with offences including rioting and wounding, according to local media. So far, 21 have been convicted, 13 of whom were associated with the white-clad group. Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.” Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps Make a one-off donation. Hans Tse is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in local politics, academia, and media transformation. He was previously a social science researcher, with writing published in the Social Movement Studies and Social Transformation of Chinese Societies journals. He holds an M.Phil in communication from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before joining HKFP, he also worked as a freelance reporter for Initium between 2019 and 2021, where he covered the height - and aftermath - of the 2019 protests, as well as the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020. More by Hans Tse