Departures of note

Tung Chee-hwa was a Hong Kong businessman and politician who served as the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from 1997 to 2005, following the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China. Born in Shanghai in 1937 as the eldest son of shipping magnate Tung Chao Yung, he took over the family's Orient Overseas Container Line after his father's death in 1981, steering the company through near-bankruptcy with the help of Chinese state-backed rescue financing in the 1980s.

Selected by a pro-Beijing committee in 1996, Tung took office on 1 July 1997. His tenure was marked by a series of crises, including the first human cases of bird flu, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the 2003 SARS outbreak, for which his government was widely criticized. His proposal of Article 23 anti-subversion legislation in 2003 triggered a mass protest of roughly half a million people, and he resigned in March 2005 citing health problems.

After leaving office, Tung served as vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 2005 to 2023 and founded the China-United States Exchange Foundation and the Our Hong Kong Foundation think tank. He remained an influential figure in Hong Kong politics, often dubbed a "kingmaker," until his death in September 2026 at age 89.