Tung Chee-hwa

Speech by the Public Orator

My Lord and Chancellor,

In 1960, a young man from Hong Kong graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Marine Engineering at the University of Liverpool He had been an exemplary student who is still remember clearly and with affections by those who taught him, including Emeritus Professor Fred Norbury, who was at that time a Lecturer in the Department. That young man was Tung Chee-hwa and he was awarded a distinguished degree, gaining honours in Class 2 Division 1.

Born in Shanghai in 1937, Tung Chee-hwa comes from a well known family who moved to Hong Kong when he was still a boy. His farther, C.Y. Tung, already a successful businessman, continued from his new base to build up the Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. Shipping empire, which his sons were to inherit, to develop and to see safely through changing economic circumstances until it re-emerged once again as the great shipping giant it is today.

Tung Chee-hwa had a truly international education, first in China, then Hong Kong and finally at Liverpool in the United Kingdom. He also lived and worked for ten years in the United States before returning to Hong Kong in 1969, where he has lived ever since. Here, with his wife Betty Tung Chiu Hung Ping, they have brought up their family.

As a successful businessman in a community renowned for its commercial acumen, C.H. Tung was appointed to the Executive Council in 1992. But it was not just for his role in the business community that he achieved eminence, but also because of his wider contact and influence with China, at a time when preparations were already being made for the complicated bridge-building which would be necessary for the transition of power in 1997.

C.H. Tung served Hong Kong on the Executive Council until June 1996, when he resigned, it subsequently transpired, in order to run for the post of Chief Executive, to which he was elected by a landslide vote some six months later. He decided to stand for election, as he himself says, to ensure the continued of success of Hong Kong and, as others would say, because of his vision of the great future potential for Hong Kong as part of China, “one country but two systems”. Described by some as a “dark horse”, he emerged as a popular choice and one known to carry the blessing of senior members of the Chinese Government. With him now lies the onerous challenge of steering a great city state through relatively unchartered waters. From being a British dependency to becoming a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China is a transition for which there are no useful precedents. The challenges are daunting. The opportunities for creating a new role for Hong Kong, built on the sure foundations of a glorious past, are there to be seized. But the way in which it is to be done is for its new leader to establish.

The University of Liverpool is rightly proud that a man, who gained his professional education in one of its engineering departments and who passed several of his formative years sharing the hopes and fears and values of young men and women living and working within a British academic community, should have achieved so much. We salute you from the other side of the world and wish you well in your new job, and we hope that with your support the many strong links between Hong Kong and Liverpool will blossom in the new century, as well as in the new era.

Tung Chee-hwa has served Hong Kong in many capacities in addition to his membership of the Executive Council. He has been a member of the Consultative Committee for the Basic Law, a Vice-Patron of the Community Chest, and Honorary Consul of Monaco. Nor is he a stranger to the modern university, having been Chairman of the Council of the City University, a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of International Studies of Stanford University, and on the Board of Overseers of that same University’s Hoover Institute on War, Revolution and Peace. In the international sphere he has been Chairman of the Hong Kong/United States Economic Cooperation Committee and a member of the Hong Kong/Japan Business Cooperation Committee.

Amongst all these educational, business and international commitments, and perhaps from our point of view most significantly, he found the time to be the first President of the University of Liverpool Graduate Association here in Hong Kong, between 1988 and 1993. The fact that the University has such a strong presence in Hong Kong and the most lively Graduate Association anywhere in the world is in no small measure due to his enthusiasm and support. 

 My Lord and Chancellor, in the name of the Senate and the Council of the University, I present to you Tung Chee-hwa for admission to the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) in this University.