22 Facts About Henry Fok

Henry Fok Ying Tung was an entrepreneur and politician in Hong Kong.

From 1993 until his death, Fok served as Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Henry Fok was one of the Hong Kong's wealthiest persons.

Henry Fok was born on 10 May 1923 in Hong Kong to an ethnic Tanka family.

Henry Fok's father died in a boating accident when he was just seven.

Henry Fok studied at Queen's College, but was not able to finish junior high due to the Japanese invasion in 1937.

Henry Fok worked as a labourer during that time while helping to run the family's small boat business.

Henry Fok reportedly made his first fortune gun-running into the mainland during the Korean War in the early 1950s, circumventing a United Nations arms embargo.

Henry Fok vigorously denied weapons trafficking, but admits having violated sanctions by smuggling steel and rubber as well as other items.

Henry Fok was the President of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, the President of the Hong Kong Football Association, and the President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong.

Henry Fok was the Chairman of Henry Fok Estates Ltd and the Yau Wing Co of Hong Kong.

Henry Fok developed the Zhongshan Hot Springs Hotel, which had a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer.

Henry Fok was Standing Committee member of 7th National People's Congress.

The press frequently reports that Henry Fok had introduced Tung Chee Hwa to Jiang Zemin as a possible candidate of the first Hong Kong Chief Executive.

Henry Fok helped Tung Chee Hwa out of a near-bankruptcy of his family's Orient Overseas Container Line in the 1980s.

Henry Fok founded the Fok Ying Tung Foundation in 1984, and it is one of the largest philanthropic organisations in Hong Kong.

Henry Fok founded a high-technology business park in Nansha District, Guangzhou.

Henry Fok's wife was Elaine Lui, and he had two concubines, Elaine Fung and Lam Sook-duen, according to the Great Qing Legal Code, which remained in force for Chinese people in Hong Kong until 1971.

On 28 October 2006, Henry Fok died at the age of 83 at the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, where he was being treated for cancer.

Henry Fok had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 1984 and the cancer had reappeared in 2004.

Henry Fok's body was flown back to Hong Kong for a traditional funeral in accordance with his wishes.

Henry Fok was posthumously awarded the Medal of Reform Pioneer.