Born in Zhongshan, People's Republic of China in 1954,[1][2] Lee lived in Hong Kong and Macau before moving to Canada in 1971 to join his grandfather,[3] who entered the country in 1913 by paying the Chinese head tax.

[5][9] He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Asia Pacific Strategy to the Minister of International Trade and Minister Responsible for the Asia Pacific Strategy and Multiculturalism in June 2013,[5] and Parliamentary Secretary for traditional Chinese medicine in December of the same year.

[15] Due to his wife's illness, he declined to seek the Liberal nomination for Burnaby South in the October 2019 federal election, thereby ruling out a rematch with Singh.

[17] In November 2015, Lee and his family were detained by the Chinese Public Security Bureau upon arrival to Shanghai, China.

Lee elected not to publicly disclose the incident until November 2019, citing concerns of creating a rift in Canada–China bilateral relations.