Hong Kong is mourning the death of Tung Chee-hwa, the city’s first leader after its return to Chinese sovereignty and a respected elder statesman, who died on Tuesday at the age of 89.
Tung was surrounded by his family when he “passed away peacefully” at 9.57pm, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Tributes and messages of grief poured in on Wednesday from across Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as from overseas, with top officials, politicians, business leaders and others praising his pioneering role as the first steward of the “one country, two systems” policy under which the city would be administered after the end of British colonial rule in 1997.
They remembered him for steering the city through its uncertain transitional years and laying the groundwork for its post-handover prosperity, and hailed his later role as an elder statesman who worked tirelessly to help improve US-China relations.
Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong issued a statement, describing Tung as a “close friend of the Communist Party of China”, an “outstanding contributor to ‘one country, two systems’” and a “renowned patriot”, while the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office sent a condolence message to his wife, Betty Tung Chiu Hung-ping.
The offices said Tung had made “major historic contributions” to Hong Kong’s smooth return to China, while crediting him with tackling complex political, economic and social challenges during the formative years of the special administrative region.
They also highlighted his work after leaving office, saying he had continued to support successive chief executives and governments, promote closer ties between Hong Kong and the mainland and use his extensive international connections to foster exchanges between China and the rest of the world.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said Tung’s leadership had made “exemplary contributions” to Hong Kong’s smooth return to Chinese rule and the implementation of the governing principle, as well as the Basic Law.
“With visionary foresight, he instituted mechanisms to promote economic and trade ties and coordinated development between Hong Kong and the mainland, laying a solid foundation for Hong Kong’s enduring competitiveness,” he said.
Tung’s other successors also paid tribute to his role in shaping post-handover Hong Kong.
Former chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said Tung had led the city into a new era with “deep patriotism, vast international experience, and a humble approach to governance”, describing his contribution as historic and enduring.
Leung Chun-ying, Lam’s predecessor as city leader, said Tung had overseen the establishment of the special administrative region and its government, leading to “Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong” with a high degree of autonomy.
“Mr Tung was benevolent and won people over with reason, serving as a role model for our generation,” he said.
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who succeeded Tung in 2005, remembered him as an approachable and broad-minded leader with vision, saying he had worked relentlessly to guide Hong Kong through its transition after the handover.
Tung, who was a shipping magnate before he entered politics, was picked to be Hong Kong’s first chief executive in 1996 after securing 320 votes from the 400-member Selection Committee, defeating former Chief Justice Ti-liang Yang and businessman Peter Woo Kwong-ching.
He was officially appointed by the State Council and took office on July 1, 1997. The city’s stock and property markets were bullish at the time, only for the Asian financial crisis to strike months later and send asset prices tumbling as unemployment rose.
Tung’s tenure was marked by difficult policy choices and successive crises, with former officials saying some of his decisions then had taken on a different significance with the passage of time.
Tung’s ambitious pledge to build 85,000 homes a year became one of the most controversial policies of his administration, drawing opposition from property developers. Amid a worsening fall in home prices and the Asian financial crisis, the target was quietly dropped.
In the wake of the crisis, Tung’s administration took the extraordinary step in August 1998 of intervening directly in the stock and futures markets, using HK$118 billion from the Exchange Fund to buy blue-chip shares and counter speculative attacks on the Hong Kong dollar and equities.
The move was fiercely debated because of Hong Kong’s traditional commitment to free-market principles, but officials later credited the intervention with helping restore financial stability. The government subsequently launched the Tracker Fund of Hong Kong in 1999 to progressively dispose of the shares it had accumulated.
Political pressure intensified on Tung in the middle of his second term in 2003, when Hong Kong faced an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and the government attempted to press ahead with national security legislation required under Article 23 of the Basic Law.
The bill was eventually shelved after an estimated 500,000 people marched on July 1 that year, amid opposition concerns about suppression of civil liberties and mounting dissatisfaction over livelihood issues.
But 2003 also marked the beginning of a much deeper phase of economic integration between Hong Kong and the mainland.
The city and Beijing signed the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, giving Hong Kong preferential access to mainland markets, while the Individual Visit Scheme opened the door for more mainland residents to travel independently to the city.
Both measures helped revive Hong Kong’s hobbled tourism sector and economy as it battled for recovery from the Sars epidemic, and continue to be vital to Hong Kong’s economy more than two decades later.
Tung later acknowledged the shortcomings of his administration. In January 2005, two months before his resignation, he said the government had at times failed to sufficiently understand public concerns and had been indecisive in responding to emergencies.
But several former officials and political figures said on Wednesday that his record deserved to be judged over a longer horizon.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said Tung showed “brave leadership” during the Asian financial crisis, while former executive councillor Bernard Chan said he hoped history would give Tung “a fair assessment”.
Lau Siu-kai, a consultant for the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies think tank, said Tung was a compassionate and upright person whose kind-hearted image often won over public sentiment and facilitated a smooth handover.
As head of the Central Policy Unit under Tung’s administration, he also said Tung had a strategic mind and made many long-term development proposals, with the Principal Officials Accountability System the most significant among them.
“Because he was in the shipping business, he travelled around the world and was acquainted with many foreign political figures. This broadened his vision and enabled him to approach issues with strategic thinking,” Lau added.
However, he noted that Tung’s business background often diminished his ability to secure public support for his policies.
“On many occasions he was unable to build social consensus, could not withstand the pressure from opposing forces, and lacked sufficient backing within the civil service,” he said.
After resigning as chief executive in March 2005, citing health reasons, Tung went on to assume a prominent role at the national level and increasingly came to be regarded as an elder statesman in Hong Kong, serving as a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body, and remaining involved in exchanges between Hong Kong, the mainland and the international community.
He founded Our Hong Kong Foundation in 2014, bringing together figures from different sectors to conduct policy research and promote areas including innovation, culture and Hong Kong’s integration into the country’s national development.
Tung also founded the China-United States Exchange Foundation in 2008, through which he promoted dialogue between Beijing and Washington, building on relationships with senior American political figures developed over several decades.
He was known to have close ties with the family of former US President George H.W. Bush, and was credited with helping to mediate tensions between Beijing and Washington over the years.
The George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations offered its “sincere condolences”, saying Tung’s efforts to deepen understanding between the two countries “was a cause that was very personal” that showed “in his warmth, graciousness, magnanimity, optimism, boundless energy and indefatigable spirit”.
Tung largely withdrew from public view in his final years. He was last seen publicly in July 2021, when he attended the premiere of a film marking the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.
His office confirmed in October that year that he had undergone surgery for an undisclosed condition and was recuperating at home.
Among Tung’s best-known sayings was his belief that Hong Kong’s fortunes were inseparable from those of the country: “If Hong Kong is good, China will be good. If China is good, Hong Kong will be even better.”
More than two decades after he left the city’s top job, the breadth of tributes on Wednesday reflected the enduring place he had come to occupy in Hong Kong’s political history, as the man tasked with leading the city through the uncertain first years of a new era. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
