How to Pronounce Tung Chee-hwa
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Jul 07, 1937 86 years old
politician and businessman from Hong Kong
CancerTung Chee Hwa - Place of Birth, Date of Birth, Age, Wiki, Facts, Net Worth, Birthday, Biography and Family
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About Tung Chee Hwa
- Tung Chee-hwa, GBM (Chinese: ???; born 7 July 1937) is a Shanghai-born Hong Kong businessman and politician.
- He was the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July 1997 to 12 March 2005.
- He is currently a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Born as the eldest son of Chinese shipping magnate Tung Chao Yung who founded Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), Tung took over the family business after his father's death in 1981.
- Four years later, OOCL teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, and the business was saved by the People's Republic of China government through Henry Fok in 1986. He 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.
- In 1996, he was elected the Chief Executive by a 400-member Selection Committee.
- His government was embroiled with a series of crises, including the bird flu and the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
- In 2002, he was re-elected without competition.
- In 2003, more than 500,000 protesters demanded Tung to step down in the light of the proposed legislation of the Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 and the SARS outbreak.
- Tung resigned in the middle of his second term on 10 March 2005. After his resignation, he was appointed vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference by the Beijing government and formed the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) in 2008 to influence public opinion towards China in the United States.
- In 2014, he founded a think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation consisting of the membership of numerous leading tycoons.
- He remains influential in Hong Kong politics and is dubbed as "kingmaker".
