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The announcement from Tung Chee-hwa’s office confirmed that the former leader passed away peacefully the previous day at Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital. According to the South China Morning Post, Tung had not appeared in public since attending a film premiere in July 2021 to mark the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party and underwent heart surgery later that year following a collapse at a Beijing parliamentary session. A statement from his office said Mr Tung Chee-hwa was a man of unwavering integrity who devoted himself wholeheartedly to the nation, his noble character and spirit will stay forever in our hearts.
Tung served as Hong Kong’s chief executive from the 1997 handover until his resignation in 2005, a period a Reuters assessment found tested the one country, two systems framework with multiple crises. The Asian financial crisis struck the day after he assumed office, contributing to a near halving of the Hang Seng index between 1997 and 1998, according to Financial Times reporting. By 2003 more than one in five apartments was worth less than its mortgage after a property bubble burst, a New York Times obituary noted, while the SARS epidemic that year further strained the city.
A proposed national security bill under Article 23 of the Basic Law drew an estimated 500,000 protesters to the streets on July 1 2003, Nikkei Asia reported, forcing Tung to shelve the legislation amid widespread opposition. He cited health concerns when he stepped down two years later, telling the public these have been turbulent times, full of hardship for Hong Kong people and adding I have done my best to serve the people and have always worked hard. Many observers linked the exit to his plunging popularity, according to multiple accounts including one from the Los Angeles Times.
Born in Shanghai on July 7 1937, Tung moved to Hong Kong with his family at age 10 before studying marine engineering at the University of Liverpool, a biographical detail confirmed across outlets including the Straits Times. He inherited and expanded the family shipping firm Orient Overseas Container Line, which accumulated more than 2.6 billion dollars in debt during the early 1980s global recession and received a bailout involving mainland Chinese entities, raising questions about Beijing’s influence that Tung rejected. The company was sold to state-owned COSCO Shipping in a 6.3 billion dollar deal in 2017, with the Tung family receiving more than 4 billion dollars, according to Nikkei Asia and Reuters.
After leaving office Tung served as vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference until 2023 and chaired the pro-Beijing Our Hong Kong Foundation think tank until stepping down in recent years, a Straits Times summary found. Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying posted on Facebook that Mr Tung had a kind and generous nature, won others over with reason and was a role model to us all while highlighting his trusted relationship with Chinese leaders. The shipping magnate maintained a net worth estimated at 3.2 billion dollars as recently as this month, Forbes data placed him at 1,325 on its billionaires list.
The Financial Times remarked that Tung set the city on a path that led to Hongkongers’ deepening divide with Beijing and spawned a desire for greater democracy. In contrast a New York Times assessment found he balanced the demands of Beijing and Hong Kongers as he carved out a path between the Chinese government and the people of Hong Kong. Tung is survived by his wife Betty Chiu, sons Alan and Andy, and daughter Audrey, according to family details reported by the Straits Times.
