Chosen by Beijing in 1996, Tung Chee-hwa’s tenure formed post-handover Hong Kong throughout a turbulent political period.
Printed On 20 Sep 2026
Hong Kong has given a state funeral to Tung Chee-hwa, its first post-colonial chief, solely the third time town has granted such an honour since Britain returned it to Chinese language rule in 1997.
Senior Chinese language and Hong Kong officers bid farewell to Tung on the Hong Kong Funeral House in North Level on Sunday, a day after a public vigil that drew dozens of political and enterprise figures.
Beneficial Tales
record of three gadgetsfinish of record
Tung, Hong Kong’s first chief government, died on September 8 on the age of 89.
Members of the general public may pay their respects by signing condolence books at three group halls till Sunday midday.
The funeral committee, made up of 87 members, was chaired by Shi Taifeng, a senior Chinese language Communist Celebration Politburo member and vice chairman of the Chinese language Folks’s Political Consultative Convention (CPPCC), the highest political advisory physique, underlining the extent of official backing from Beijing.
Shi attended the funeral alongside Xia Baolong, Beijing’s prime official for Hong Kong and Macau affairs; present chief government John Lee; former chief executives Leung Chun-ying, Carrie Lam and Donald Tsang; and different political and enterprise figures, reported government-funded Radio Tv Hong Kong (RTHK).
Lee and Leung had been among the many pallbearers who carried Tung’s coffin, draped in China’s nationwide flag, from the corridor to a hearse, which headed to Cape Collinson Crematorium.
A delivery tycoon with little political expertise, Tung was chosen in 1996 by a Beijing-appointed committee to turn into Hong Kong’s first chief after the 1997 handover from Britain.
Tung led town by the 1997 Asian monetary disaster and the 2003 SARS outbreak, and mass protests that 12 months pressured him to shelve proposed nationwide safety laws.
He was re-elected unopposed in 2002 however resigned in 2005, halfway by his second time period, citing poor well being, in a transfer extensively seen as pushed by Beijing’s lack of confidence in him.
He went on to function a vice chairman of the CPPCC till 2023.
Two enterprise leaders, industrialist Ann Tse-kai and tycoon Henry Fok, who each served as vice chairs of the CPPCC, got state funerals in 2000 and 2006, respectively.
Chinese language state media described Tung as a “famend patriot”, whereas his successor, Tsang, referred to as him “an easy-going, light and refined man with a broad-minded outlook and far-reaching imaginative and prescient”.
Critics recalled his tenure as marked by governance struggles and public discontent that by no means absolutely recovered after the monetary disaster.
