James Tien (politician)

James Tien Pei-chun
田北俊
Member of the Legislative Council
In office
1 October 2012 – 30 September 2016
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byEunice Yung
ConstituencyNew Territories East
In office
1 October 2004 – 30 September 2008
Preceded byWong Sing-chi
Succeeded byWong Sing-chi
In office
21 December 1996 – 30 June 1998
(Provisional Legislative Council)
In office
1 July 1998 – 30 September 2004
Preceded byNew parliament
Succeeded byJeffrey Lam
ConstituencyCommercial (First)
In office
28 June 1993 – 30 June 1997
Preceded byStephen Cheong
Succeeded byReplaced by Provisional Legislative Council
ConstituencyIndustrial (First)
In office
12 October 1988 – 22 August 1991
Appointed bySir David Wilson
Non-official Member of the Executive Council
In office
1 July 2002 – 6 July 2003
Appointed byTung Chee-hwa
Preceded byHenry Tang
Succeeded bySelina Chow
Member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
In office
March 2003 – 29 October 2014
ChairmanJia Qinglin
Yu Zhengsheng
Leader of the Liberal Party
In office
21 May 2013 – 29 October 2014
ChairpersonSelina Chow
Preceded byNew post
Succeeded byVincent Fang
Chairman of the Liberal Party
In office
5 December 1998 – 8 September 2008
Preceded byAllen Lee
Succeeded byMiriam Lau
Chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board
In office
1 April 2007 – 1 April 2013
Appointed byDonald Tsang
Preceded bySelina Chow
Succeeded byPeter Lam
Personal details
Born (1947-01-08) 8 January 1947 (age 77)
Shanghai, Republic of China
Political partyLiberal Party (1993–2022)
Other political
affiliations
Hope for Hong Kong (2020–2021)
SpouseMary N. H.
RelationsMichael Tien (brother)
ChildrenAndrea
Calvin
ParentFrancis Tien
ResidenceHong Kong Island
Alma materDiocesan Boys' School
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
OccupationPolitician, entrepreneur
James Tien
Chinese田北俊
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTián Běijùn
Wade–GilesT'ien2 Pei3-chun4
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationTìhn Bāk jeun
JyutpingTin4 Bak1zeon3

James Tien Pei-chun, GBS, OBE, JP (Chinese: 田北俊; born 8 January 1947) is the former chairman and Leader of the Liberal Party (LP) and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Legco). Originally an entrepreneur, he was also a non-official member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong (Exco), member of Central and Western and Kwai Tsing District Council and Hong Kong member to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Son of the textile entrepreneur-turned-politician Francis Tien, James was appointed to public offices since the 1980s, where he sat on the Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee (BLCC) and was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1988. He returned to the LegCo in 1993 through a by-election in the Industrial (First) functional constituency nominated by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries (FHKI).

He succeeded Allen Lee to become the chairman of the Liberal Party in 1998 and was appointed to the Executive Council by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa in 2002. His popularity rose to peak when he resigned from the ExCo in 2003 in opposition to the Basic Law Article 23 which brought down the proposed legislation. He ran a successful campaign in the 2004 LegCo geographical constituency direct election but was defeated in 2008 and resigned from his party offices.

He threw his weight behind Henry Tang in the 2012 Chief Executive election and had been critical of the eventual winner Leung Chun-ying after the election. His vocal opposition to Leung saw his CPPCC membership being stripped away, making him the first person in history to have received this sanction. He served one more term on the LegCo from 2012 to 2016.


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