Lee Hsien Loong

Lee Hsien Loong was born at KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Singapore on 10 February 1952, during the time when Singapore was a British colony. He is the eldest child of Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo and the patriline grandson of a retired storekeeper-turned-salesman, Lee Chin Koon (1903–1995) and Chua Jim Neo (1905–1980), a chef. His mother has ancestry from Tong'an District and Longhu while his father has ancestry from Dabu County in China.

Education

Lee was educated at Nanyang Primary School and Catholic High School—where he played clarinet in the school band, and National Junior College before he was awarded the President's Scholarship and Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship in 1971 by the Public Service Commission (PSC) to study mathematics at Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

He was Senior Wrangler at Cambridge in 1973, and graduated in 1974 with a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and a diploma in computer science (with distinction). His college tutor, Denis Marrian, later described Lee as "the brightest mathematician he had admitted to the college". Béla Bollobás said that Lee "would have been a world-class research mathematician", but his father did not realise this and persuaded Lee to leave the field. In an interview prior to Lee's resignation as prime minister in 2024, Lee revealed that he did not regret choosing politics over mathematics, declaring that he "had the responsibility to come back to Singapore, be part of Singapore, and do what [he] could to help the country to succeed", which was "the right thing to do".

He subsequently went on to complete a Master of Public Administration degree, becoming a Mason Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1980.

Military career

Lee joined the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in 1972, and served as a commissioned officer between 1974 and 1984, and held various staff and command posts, including Director of the Joint Operations and Plans Directorate, and Chief of Staff of the General Staff.

He also attended the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1978.

Lee rose quickly through the ranks in the Singapore Army, becoming the youngest brigadier-general in Singapore's history after his promotion in July 1983 at the age of 31.

Notably, he was put in command of the rescue operations following the Sentosa cable car disaster. Lee served as commanding officer of the 23rd Battalion Singapore Artillery in the Singapore Army before he left the SAF in 1984 for politics.

Lee married his first wife, Wong Ming Yang, a Malaysian-born physician, on 20 May 1978. They have a daughter and a son, Li Xiuqi, born in 1981, and Li Yipeng, born in 1982. Three weeks after giving birth to their son, Wong died of a heart attack on 28 October 1982, at the age of 31.

In 1985, Lee remarried to Ho Ching, a President's Scholar and civil servant who subsequently became the executive director and chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings. They have two sons, Li Hongyi and Li Haoyi. Their elder son, Li Hongyi, was a commissioned officer in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), and is the deputy director of the Government Technology Agency. Their younger son, Li Haoyi, is a software engineer who has written books on the Scala programming language.

Lee was initially diagnosed with lymphoma, for which he underwent chemotherapy in the early 1990s. He subsequently underwent a successful robot-assisted keyhole prostatectomy on 15 February 2015 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Lee is interested in computer programming and has written a Sudoku solver in C++ in his spare time.

During the 1980s, Lee was regarded as the core member of the next batch of new leaders in the People's Action Party (PAP) leadership transition that was taking place in the mid-1980s, as Lee Kuan Yew had declared that he would step down as prime minister in 1984. Following the 1984 general election, all of the old Central Executive Committee members except Lee Kuan Yew resigned on 1 January 1985.

Lee was first elected Member of Parliament for the Teck Ghee SMC in 1984, at the age of 32.

In 1985, he was appointed Minister of State for Trade and Industry, and Minister of State for Defence. He chaired the government's economic committee, which recommended changes to established government policies to reduce business costs, foster longer-term growth and revive the Singapore economy, which was experiencing a recession at the time. The committee's recommendations included reductions in corporate and personal taxes and the introduction of a consumption tax.

In 1986, Lee was appointed Acting Minister for Trade and Industry. In 1987, he became a full member of the Cabinet as Minister for Trade and Industry and Second Minister for Defence.

Condominium rebates

In 1996, while serving as deputy prime minister, Lee and his father Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew addressed Parliament on the allegations of receiving special discounts on four luxury condominium units that they had purchased from Hotel Properties Limited (HPL) on the properties of Nassim Jade and Scotts 28 in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Lee Kuan Yew's brother Lee Suan Yew was the director of HPL, leading to the controversy. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong ordered an immediate investigation into the matter, since although the provision of special discounts or rebates to relatives and associates of directors is permitted under Singapore law, shareholders must approve such transactions.

Ministerial salary

Lee's salary has been a source of public discontent. From 2008 to 2012, Lee received an annual salary of S$3,870,000 (US$2,856,930), an increase of 25% from the previous S$3,091,200 (US$2,037,168). In January 2012, due to public discontent, Lee took a 28% pay cut, reducing his salary to S$2.2 million (US$1.7 million). He remained the highest-paid head of government in the world until his resignation as prime minister in 2024.

Allegations of nepotism

In 2010, Lee, together with his predecessors, threatened legal action against The New York Times Company, which owns the International Herald Tribune, regarding an op-ed piece titled "All in the Family" of 15 February 2010 by Philip Bowring, a freelance columnist and former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review. The International Herald Tribune apologised in March that readers of the article may "infer that the younger Lee did not achieve his position through merit". The New York Times Company and Bowring agreed to pay S$60,000 to Lee, S$50,000 to Lee Kuan Yew and S$50,000 to Goh (amounting to about US$114,000 at the time), in addition to legal costs. The case stemmed from a 1994 settlement between the three Singaporean leaders and the paper about an article also by Bowring that referred to 'dynastic politics' in East Asian countries, including Singapore. In that settlement, Bowring agreed not to say or imply that the younger Lee had attained his position through nepotism.

In response, media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders wrote an open letter urging Lee and other top Singapore government officials to stop taking "libel actions" against journalists. Legal action had been taken in the Singapore courts for defamation against the Financial Times (2007) and the New York Times Company. In a 2008 report, the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute cast doubts on the independence of the judiciary in cases involving PAP litigants or interests.

As the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, Lee's career has been shadowed by allegations of nepotism. He was widely tipped to be prime minister with several critics viewing Goh Chok Tong as a seat-warmer. Lee has challenged his critics to prove their allegations of nepotism or put the matter to rest.