Tung Chee-hwa

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The Honourable Tung Chee-hwa GBM
董建華
Tung in 2011
1st Chief Executive of Hong Kong
In office 1 July 1997 – 12 March 2005
President	Jiang Zemin Hu Jintao
Premier	Li Peng Zhu Rongji Wen Jiabao
Preceded by	Office established Chris Patten (as Governor of Hong Kong)
Succeeded by	Donald Tsang
Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
In office 12 March 2005 – 10 March 2023
Chairman	Jia Qinglin Yu Zhengsheng Wang Yang
Member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong
In office 7 October 1992 – 3 June 1996
Appointed by	Chris Patten
Personal details
Born	(1937-07-07) 7 July 1937 (age 87) Xuhui, Shanghai, China
Spouse	Betty Tung ​ (m. 1961)​ [1]
Children	Alan Tung Lieh-sing (son)[2] Andrew Tung Lieh-cheung (son)[3] Audrey Slighton Tung Lieh-yuan (daughter)[4]
Relatives	Audrey Alice King & Yvette Yao (grandniece) [5]
Residence(s)	Grenville House, Mid-Levels
Education	Chung Wah Middle School
Alma mater	University of Liverpool (BS)
Occupation	Politician businessman
Signature
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	董建華
Simplified Chinese	董建华
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dǒng Jiànhuá IPA [tʊ̀ŋ tɕjɛ̂n.xwǎ] Wu Romanization Ton Cie Wa Hakka Romanization Dung3 Gien4 Fa2[6] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Dúng Gin wàh Jyutping Dung2 Gin3 Waa4 IPA [tʊ̌ŋ kīːn wȁː]

Tung Chee-hwa GBM (Chinese: 董建華; born 7 July 1937) 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. He served as a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) between 2005 and 2023.

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".^[7]