Tung Chee-Hwa (Chinese: 董建華) born the July 7th 1937 with Shanghai (China) was the first executive chief of the special administrative Région of HongKong in Popular republic of China.

Former business man, Tung exerts the functions of executive chief since July 1st 1997, when HongKong was returned by the the United Kingdom with the China.

March 10th, 2005, Tung resigned by pretexting health issues; several commentators rather evoked his incompetence during the economic crisis of 1997-1998 and the atypical epidemic of Pneumonie in 2003. Hong-Kongais reproached him its honesty the government of Beijing and its lack of charisma, and granted to him to the nickname the “gâteux old man Tung” (Sinogramme: 老懵董), a Word game Cantonese on its Family name.

Biography

Born with Shanghai (or Zhoushan), the Tung family moves in Hong-Kong when it was 10 years old. His/her father, Tung Chao Yung a Contractor, made a success of there in the sector of the maritime transport.

Tung, oldest son, ensure the succession after the death of his/her father. However, the businesses are bad and that requires a broad loan of the HSBC. According to accounts, the government of China at the time, through his/her friend Henry Fok, would have granted to him contracts for the transport of the weapons. That could explain the strong preference expressed by China so that Tung is named Chef of the executive in spite of his lack of political experience.

Election of the first Chief of the executive

In at the beginning of 1997, Tung easily gains the election vis-a-vis four other candidates. He was elected the first Chief of the executive by the electoral College of 400 voters of HongKong. It should be noted that HongKong forever have a chief elected by the vote for all - the British predecessors (Governors of HongKong) all were named by the British Couronne.

Before the retrocession, Tung occupies the Chef station of the indicated executive, with the assistance of a cabinet lately made up (Executive council of HongKong) and some assisted senior officials of the government of HongKong to help the transition towards Chinese sovereignty.

The indicated government was put at the work three political sites: housing, elderly, and education. The construction of 85.000 new apartments every year was envisaged in order to make the price of the residences more accessible. The Asian Economic crisis which upset HongKong in the months following the election makes this objective immediately obsolete. Indeed, collapse in the prices of real estate became a problem much more urgent between 1998 and 2002.

First mandate

Tung seizes the power formally on July 1st, 1997, with an approval favorable public. Nevertheless, a few months later, the economic conjuncture caused by the Asian crisis makes assemble unemployment rate, and makes break down values quoted and real, and thus the loss of confidence in Tung and the government of HKSAR. The market of real estate was not helped by its great project of construction of the residences.

During the first mandate of Tung, a certain number of reform proposals, and an abundance of the great projects of infrastructure were advanced, in particular Cyberport (a technological park), a center of Chinese medicine and the park of Disneyland, HongKong. President Jiang Zemin reproached him certain decisions taken without preliminary consultation sufficient, in particular the lack of transparency of the Cyberport project, directly put in the hand of Richard Li, wire of the billionaire Li Ka-shing, without any consultation nor put in competition of the developers, and the interference with the market announced by the public finance of most of the project of the park Disneyland. But too often its administration was seen like inefficient.

The public makes it feel guilty, amongst other things, for the confusion of the first days of new the airport, the bad management of the epidemic of Avian flu, the wasted reforms of education, unfastens it on the right of residence for the children resulting from Hongkongais, and the dissensions of its political sights with the secretary as a chief, Anson Chan.

Second mandate

According to the texts, a candidate must accumulate a minimum of 100 nominations before being able to dispute the election of the Chief of the executive. By obtaining 714 votes among the 800 votes available to the electoral college, Tung Chee-Hwa ensures its victory without having to dispute an election.

The popularity of Tung, in freefall, reached 47% at the end of August 2002.

Governorship

The new system of governorship founded by Tung at the beginning of its second mandate in 2002 transforms the responsibility for the minister into chief, Minister Minister for Finance for Justice and all the other ministerial persons in charge. In order to have a better political coherence, they would not be any more politically neutral civils servant, but would have from now on political affiliations and would be named by the Chief of the executive, with a direct report/ratio. They would also automatically make party of the “cabinet” (the Executive council of HongKong).

The chiefs of the liberal party and DAB were invited to take part in the Executive council and the controlling coalition, but there was no representation of the democrats.

Crises of governorship

The first major private bill of the 2nd Tung administration was to apply article 23 of the fundamental law of HongKong in September 2002. The initiative involved a hostile answer of lawyers, unquestionable journalists and personality policies. The government did not manage to reassure the public, which feared the systematic erosion of freedoms which he enjoyed before.

At the same time, the warning statement following the bursting of the atypical epidemic of pneumonia (SARS) at the beginning of 2003, was criticized for its slowness. The insufficiency of the departments of health vis-a-vis the epidemic and the unexpected number of the dead ones which E, was the consequence were considered to be inadmissible. These two routs involved the largest demonstration ever have in the territory: approximately 500.000 people (on a population of 6.800.000) ravelled on July 1st, 2003, claiming the resignation of Tung.

In reaction to these protests, the resignations follow one another. Initially, the chief of the liberal party, James Tien, resigns of the Executive council on July 6th, meaning the withdrawal of the support of the proposal applying article 23. Consequently, the government had to withdraw it of about a legislative day. July 16th, two members of its cabinet announce their departures the same day: Regina IP, the secretary for safety, in charge of the application of the proposal, leaves its station for “personal reasons”; the secretary of Finances Antony Leung resigns. Leung had previously survived a scandal, called “Lexusgate”, concerning the purchase of a luxury car a few weeks before it imposes a tax of vehicular registration.

Following the worst political crisis ever known by the administration, and also shaken by the increased civil conscience of the public and the popularity of the pro-democratic camp, the government became paralyzed, the application of several of its policies had difficulties vis-a-vis the opposition of the pro-democratic camp. The population, which had a great mistrust of the RPC, claimed more democratization, and reproached Tung not to have to put it on the day order with the central government.

At the end of October 2003, the administration authorizes the Harbor Fest in order to mark the end of the chapter of atypical pneumonia. This event, which should have helped revitalization the economy, was paradoxically a monumental failure, with a loss of HK$100m (EUR10m) financed by the taxpayer.

The administration again was shaken by a resignation on July 7th, 2004. Yeoh Eng Kiong, secretary for health, takes responsability for the insufficiencies for the departments of health during the crisis for atypical pneumonia revealed in a report/ratio for investigation for Legco.

The Going public of Link REIT (bottom real investment) whose credits under unclaimed were the buildings of HLM, was withdrawn at the last time because of a lawsuit. Residents of the touched HLM disputed the sale of the social goods for fear of the increase in cost of life within the district. Launching of what would have been the bottom the largest investment real in the world was a failure, with a visibility international. The government was criticized for its lack of precaution of the legal risks, and that confirms for the population the incompetence of the administration.

In spite of the improvement of the economy during 2004, with a fall of unemployment rate and of deflation, the reduction in the numbers of participants in the demonstrations in 2005 and the more favorable approval of the government, the popularity of Tung always remains in tidal wave, compared has Donald Tsang and Henry Tang, who goes up in the surveys.

Resignation

The reputation of Tung was still tarnished when Hu Jintao publicly reproached it in December 2004 of its governorship. In spite of that, Tung insisted that one asked him simply to reflect made errors, and that it always had the support of the President. At the time of its speech on its policies in January 2005, it has nevertheless self-criticism its own performance.

The fact that Tung did not know to manage the speculation since the beginning of the year until its real departure confirmed its weakness and confusion. Mid-February, the business man Stanley Ho who declared his support of Donald Tsang for the next elections of the chief of the executive, starts the speculation that Tung could yield its station in exchange of a post of vice-president of the political advisory Conférence of the Chinese people (CCPPC). Last nine new candidates of the CCPPC, including Tung, were named on February 27th.

A few days later, the Financial Times publishes rumors of its imminent resignation, and the bulletin of the infos on the chain CableTV the evening quotes “a reliable source” which would confirm semi-officially its departure. The office of Tung kept silence on this “speculation”.

The next morning, on March 2nd, all the local newspapers, except those controlled by or fidel with the Chinese government, announce the resignation awaited on first page. Tung remained stop-bent.

March 10th, 2005, a press conference was held to end the speculation. The resignation of Tung “for health reasons” was announced. Convened for conference (CCPPC) with Beijing on March 11th, it was elected there vice-president. Its resignation was accepted and ratified at the time of the conference. As the post of vice-president is symbolic system and without real capacity, the local press commented on that this station would have been entrusted to him so that it does not lose the face.

References

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