Henry Tang

Henry Tang Ying-yen (born 6 September 1952) is a Hong Kong politician who served as the Chief Secretary of Hong Kong between 2007 and 2011.

Tang was born 6 September 1952 at early morning at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital in Happy Valley, Wan Chai in British Hong Kong, His family operated in the textile industry and came from Wuxi, Jiangsu to Hong Kong in 1949 to escape the communists who were taking over the Chinese mainland.

Henry Tang himself was born in what was then British Hong Kong in 1952.

Tang went to Culford School in Suffolk in Britain before attending and graduating from Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1975.

Henry Tang is commonly believed to have attended Graduate School at Yale University and to have obtained a master's degree in sociology.

These were credentials submitted to then Hong Kong governor David Wilson in 1991–1992.

So far there is no evidence that he did obtain that degree.

Tang has extensive ties with PRC leaders as his father Tang Hsiang Chien was a standing committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the advisory body to the National People's Congress.

He served as a member of the Legislative Council for seven years from 1991 to 1998 as a member of the Liberal Party, a pro-business and pro-Beijing party, prior to joining the government.

Tang has also served extensively on various government boards and public bodies, including the Trade Development Council, Town Planning Board, University Grants Committee, and Council of the City University of Hong Kong.

Tang was named Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1993 and won the Young Industrialist of Hong Kong award in 1989.

Between 1995 and 2001 he served as the Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries.

He was also a Committee Member of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and a Steward of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

He was Chairman of the Provisional Construction Industry Co-ordination Board (PCICB) before joining the government.

Tang was a member of the Executive Council from the transfer of sovereignty in 1997 to 2011.

Tang took up his commerce post in July 2002 as part of a line-up of new secretaries aimed at improving the government's transparency.

He held the position of Financial Secretary from 2003 to 2007.

He was promoted from Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology to Finance Secretary on 4 August 2003 replacing Antony Leung.

Leung resigned on 16 July 2003 due to allegations of tax evasion in regards to his new car.

However, during a Working Group meeting on 31 October 2003 and during an independent inquiry in May 2004, Tang allegedly said Rowse had not acted improperly and that there had been no irregularity in the implementation of the event.

Tang had also said that all parties had underestimated the complexity of the event and may have been too ambitious in organising it in such a short timespan.

He later withdrew the remark: just before a government inquiry opened in November 2004, Tang requested the ERWG minutes be deleted.

Tang briefly served (25 May to 21 June 2005) as acting Chief Executive after Tung Chee Hwa, the former Chief Executive who resigned citing health reasons.

On 25 May 2005, Donald Tsang, the Chief Secretary for Administration, resigned to stand in the 'by-election' for Chief Executive.

Tang served as Acting Chief Executive of HKSAR soon after Tsang's resignation was announced.

Tang was involved in the Harbour Fest controversy as Chairman of the Economic Relaunch Strategy Group responsible for pushing ahead with the plan to spend $100 million to revive the economy after SARS, and said that he should be held responsible.

Tang had said that although Mike Rowse, a senior civil servant, had actually signed the contract, Rowse as such was not required to be held politically responsible.

On 23 June 2007, it was announced that Tang would succeed Rafael Hui as the new Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong effective 1 July 2007.

Internal governmental disciplinary process fined Rowse for misconduct, but a High Court judge quashed the government ruling on 4 July 2008.

Political commentator Frank Ching pointed to the huge credibility gap of the government.

He noted that Tang's attempt to shift political responsibility from himself, as the minister responsible, to a senior civil servant, was a travesty of justice for Rowse, and went against the Accountability System.

On 6 March 2010 Tang attended a Youth Summit in Chai Wan organised by the Home Affairs Bureau.

A 31-year-old jobless man threw a shoe at Tang and it landed on the stage metres away from him.

The man was dragged away by police.

The man said he was unemployed after getting fired by a computer company, and the government policies were not helping him.

He said he was not a "post-80s" teen, but supported the highspeed rail protest connecting HK to Guangdong.

A protester said that the topics discussed in the summit are not those that any young person would be interested in.

On 15 January 2011, Tang gave a speech at the Roundtable Institute that included controversial comments about the Hong Kong post-80s generation.

In 2012, he lost the Hong Kong Chief Executive Election to Leung Chun-ying.