34 Facts About Tung Chee-hwa

Tung Chee-hwa is a Hong Kong businessman and retired politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July.

Tung Chee-hwa served as a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference between 2005 and 2023.

Tung Chee-hwa was appointed an unofficial member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong by the last British Governor Chris Patten in 1992 and was tipped as Beijing's favourite as the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR.

Tung Chee-hwa's government was embroiled with a series of crises, including the bird flu and the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

Tung Chee-hwa resigned in the middle of his second term on 10 March 2005.

Tung Chee-hwa remains influential in Hong Kong politics and is dubbed as "kingmaker".

Tung Chee-hwa was born in Xuhui District, Shanghai on 7 July 1937,29th day of the fifth lunar month in 1937 in the Chinese calendar into an influential shipping magnate family of Tung Chee-hwa Chao Yung.

In 1949 during the Chinese Communist Revolution, when Tung Chee-hwa was 12 years old, Tung Chee-hwa's father moved the family to Hong Kong.

Tung Chee-hwa's father remained close to Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government on Taiwan, in which the logo OCCL has been plum blossom, the national flower of the Republic of China.

Tung Chee-hwa was sent abroad to study at Liverpool University, leaving him with a lifelong passion for the Liverpool Football Club.

Tung Chee-hwa graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Science degree in marine engineering in 1960.

Tung Chee-hwa lived in San Francisco before he returned to Hong Kong in 1969.

Tung Chee-hwa joined his father's business upon his return to Hong Kong in 1969 and gradually took over the leadership of the family enterprise.

Tung Chee-hwa took over his family business in 1982 when his father died.

Tung Chee-hwa became close to the Communist authorities in Beijing afterward especially with Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, who had risen to power surrounded by his "Shanghai clique"; Tung Chee-hwa could be associated with them because he was from the nearby city of Ningbo, Zhejiang and had lived and worked in Shanghai for a while.

Tung Chee-hwa was a member of the Basic Law Consultative Committee from 1985 to 1990, responsible for the drafting of the Basic Law of Hong Kong.

Tung Chee-hwa employed three "isms" in his election campaign, namely Confucianism, elitism and nationalism.

Tung Chee-hwa was sworn in as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on the day of transfer of sovereignty on 1 July 1997.

In early 1997, Tung Chee-hwa saw his victory in the first Chief Executive election, in the voting conducted by 400 committees of electoral college whose members are appointed by the Chinese Government.

Tung Chee-hwa's decisions were somewhat questioned by the central government, including Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Tung Chee-hwa's administration was seen as troubled, particularly during the confusion of the first days of the new airport, the mis-handling of the avian influenza epidemic, declining standards due to education reforms, the right of abode issue, and his disagreement of political views with the popular then Chief Secretary, Anson Chan.

In late 2004, the Tung Chee-hwa administration experienced another embarrassment as the large planned sale of government-owned real estate, The Link REIT, was cancelled at the last moment by a lawsuit by a tenant from an affected estate.

However, the popularity of Tung Chee-hwa himself remained low compared to his deputies including Donald Tsang and Henry Tang.

Tung Chee-hwa's reputation suffered further damage when Hu Jintao gave him a humiliating public dressing-down for poor governance in December 2004.

Tung Chee-hwa himself denied it was a dressing-down, and insisted that he retained the central government's support, although he and the rest of the government were asked to examine their past inadequacies.

Nevertheless, in his January 2005 Policy Address, Tung Chee-hwa gave a rather critical verdict on his own performance.

Tung Chee-hwa declined to comment when questioned by journalists waiting at the government headquarters.

On 10 March 2005, Tung Chee-hwa assembled a press conference at the Central Government Offices and announced that he had tendered his resignation due to "health problems".

Tung Chee-hwa's resignation sparked a constitutional debate of whether his successor should fill his remaining term of two years, or start a new term of five years.

Tung Chee-hwa was mostly chosen by the PRC due to his business background as well as owing Beijing for saving him from bankruptcy with a US$100 million loan.

In 2008, Tung Chee-hwa formed the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a group whose stated aim is to promote better understanding between the two countries.

In 2014, Tung Chee-hwa founded a thinktank Our Hong Kong Foundation.

Tung Chee-hwa said this was the reason he asked Carrie Lam to run in the election in order to prevent an "embarrassing situation".

In July 2017, Tung Chee-hwa sold his family business Orient Overseas Limited to Chinese state-owned Cosco Shipping in a HK$49.2 billion deal.