Anson Chan

Anson Maria Elizabeth Chan Fang On-sang, (née Fang; born 17 January 1940) is a retired Hong Kong politician and civil servant who was the first ethnic Chinese and woman to serve as Chief Secretary, the second-highest position in both the British colonial government and the Hong Kong SAR government under the Chinese sovereignty from 1993 until she retired from the government in 2001, sparking speculations of her growing rift with Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.

Enjoying wide popularity during her tenure and often dubbed as "Iron Lady" and the "Conscience of Hong Kong", Chan became increasingly outspoken about pushing for a faster pace of the democratisation in Hong Kong and defending the autonomy of Hong Kong.

Anson Fang was born in Shanghai into an affluent family in 1940.

Her father Fang Shin-hau was a banker and textile businessman who moved his family to the British colony of Hong Kong in 1948 on the eve of the Communist victory of the Chinese Civil War.

Fang Shin-hau died suddenly in 1950 aged 36 when Anson was only ten, leaving eight children to her mother Fang Zhaoling.

Anson's mother took the eldest sons off to England to oversee their education, leaving the rest in the hands of Anson's paternal grandmother and some uncles and aunts.

She began work on a social work diploma, but later changed her mind and joined the Hong Kong Civil Service in 1962.

The following year, she married Archie, who became a science teacher at St Joseph's College.

When Chan joined the administrative service cadet in 1962, she was one of only two women to join the civil service at that time.

Her salary was reportedly one-quarter that paid to men of equivalent grade.

Afterwards, she progressed to the Economics Section of the Finance Branch in 1962, followed by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, then the Department of Commerce and Industry, and later back to Finance.

In 1970, she became Assistant Financial Secretary in the Finance Branch of the Colonial Secretary, the first woman to attain that post.

She became a senior administrative officer in 1970.

During this period she helped set up the Association of Female Senior Government Officers to fight for better rights for women civil servants, notably pushing for wage parity with men.

Her paternal grandfather, Fang Zhenwu, was a Kuomintang general who fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War, while her uncle, Sir Harry Fang Sin-yang was a well-known orthopaedic surgeon and served as an appointed member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1974 to 1985.

Her mother Fang Zhaoling who was also a Chinese painting master not only shouldered the responsibility of raising her children, but also tried to pursue her career as an artist.

Anson was educated at the Sacred Heart Canossian College and studied English literature at the University of Hong Kong.

She put herself through university by working as a private tutor and for a year as a clerk at Queen Mary Hospital.

Along with studies, she was keen on amateur dramatics, and it was through this that she met her future husband, Archibald Chan Tai-wing.

Chan became the first female civil service director when appointed Director of Social Welfare in 1984.

During her tenure, she was severely criticised by media for her handling of a child custody case in 1986, popularly known as the Kwok Ah-nui incident.

An investigation by unofficial members of the Executive Council found that Chan had "acted within the law" in respect of her extreme powers, but recommended changes to the law and to the Social Welfare Department's procedures to prevent re-occurrence of similar cases.

She later admitted that the media pressure had made her "very upset" and this led to keep her distance from the press, at least for a few years.

From 1987 to 1993, she was Secretary for Economic Services.

She served as Secretary for the Civil Service from April to October 1993 before becoming the 30th and last Chief Secretary, the head of the Hong Kong civil service, in November 1993.

She mainly oversaw the localisation of the civil service during her time in this position.

From 1994, she headed the Airport Development Steering Committee overseeing the construction of the new Chek Lap Kok Airport.

Chan was the first woman and the first ethnic Chinese to hold the second-highest governmental position in Hong Kong.

The highest governmental position, the Governor, was always held by Britons before Hong Kong's handover to People's Republic of China.

Chan was often described during this era as an "Iron Lady", with "an iron fist in a velvet glove".

Chan was lauded as the most powerful woman in Asia for her role as the deputy of British Governor Chris Patten, and later first Chief Executive of the SAR Tung Chee-hwa.

She was considered most trusted high official in Hong Kong by both the UK and PRC government to appoint her to the head of the civil service, before and after the handover of Hong Kong.

In the run-up to the handover of Hong Kong, she was often the 'face of Hong Kong', dispatched to reassure the wider world that the territory would not implode upon its return to China and that civil liberties would be upheld.

Her confidence reassured many around the globe.

Within Hong Kong she had wide public support to be the first Chief Executive in the new administration but announced in October 1996 that she would not seek the role.

After Hong Kong's handover to China on 1 July 1997, Chan stayed on as head of the civil service under then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, a valuable sign of stability and continuity for the new administration.

She was always highly regarded: one British-born civil servant said that "nothing would work without her", also noting that "Tung needs her more than she needs him."

Chan was loyal in the main but her public utterances were occasionally at odds with Tung.

Supported by the pan-democracy camp, she stood in the 2007 Hong Kong Island by-election and briefly served as member of the Legislative Council.

After her retirement in 2008, she continued to lobby domestically and internationally for democracy and autonomy of Hong Kong, until her retirement from public life entirely in 2020.