Mo Kwan-nin, the highest ranking Chinese official with a local background appointed during the colonial era, died on Saturday aged 76.
Mo passed away in a local hospital on 7.02pm from an undisclosed illness, sources said.
He was born in the city in 1937 and graduated from the Chinese Department at the University of Hong Kong in 1961.
Mo became a Chinese and Chinese history teacher at Methodist College in Yau Ma Tei. He was later put in charge of the school's curriculum.
He joined the Hong Kong office of Xinhua News Agency, the de facto representative office of Beijing in the colonial era, in 1984 and was appointed its deputy director in 1987. This was seen as a Chinese Communist Party gesture to show its recognition of Hongkongers.
Mo was also appointed secretary-general of the Basic Law Consultative Committee.