Tang Hsiang-chien, Hong Kong industrialist and father to former chief secretary, dies aged 95
Businessman and member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee died peacefully on Saturday morning, according to a family representative
Tang Hsiang-chien, one of Hong Kong’s pre-eminent industrialists and father to former chief secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen, died on Saturday morning. He was 95.
Tang “died peacefully”, according to a statement from a family representative.
The family expressed “deep sorrow” over the death.
Tang had a close relationship with former president Jiang Zemin, who hailed from Shanghai, and some observers even described the two “as thick as brothers”.
In politics, Tang played an important role in the negotiations in the lead up to the transfer of Hong Kong from the UK to China. He sat on the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a body implementing the transition of the city’s sovereignty. He also sat on the election committee from 1996 for a decade that was responsible for electing the city’s leadership.
Tang was born in 1923 into a textile family from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. After graduating from Shanghai University, he studied in the United Kingdom and the United States. He moved the family business to Hong Kong in the 1950s.