Hong Kong has held a state funeral for Tung Chee-hwa, the city’s first post-colonial leader, in an honour granted only twice before since Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.
Senior Chinese and Hong Kong officials attended the ceremony at Hong Kong Funeral Home in North Point on Sunday, following a public vigil the previous day attended by dozens of political and business figures.
Tung died on September 8 aged 89. Members of the public were able to sign condolence books at three community halls until noon on Sunday.
The 87-member funeral committee was chaired by Shi Taifeng, a senior Chinese Communist Party Politburo member and vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, highlighting the level of official backing from Beijing.
Mr Shi attended alongside Xia Baolong, Beijing’s top official for Hong Kong and Macau affairs, and current chief executive John Lee. Former chief executives Leung Chun-ying, Carrie Lam and Donald Tsang were also present, together with other political and business figures.
Mr Lee and Mr Leung were among the pallbearers who carried Tung’s coffin, draped in China’s national flag, from the funeral home to a hearse bound for Cape Collinson Crematorium.
Tung Chee-hwa’s post-handover leadership
A shipping tycoon with limited political experience, Tung was selected in 1996 by a Beijing-appointed committee to lead Hong Kong after the handover from Britain in 1997.
His tenure included the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak and mass protests that year. The demonstrations forced him to shelve proposed national security legislation.
Tung was re-elected unopposed in 2002 but resigned in 2005, halfway through his second term, citing poor health. The decision was widely seen as reflecting Beijing’s loss of confidence in his leadership.
He later served as a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference until 2023.
Chinese state media described Tung as a “renowned patriot”, while his successor, Mr Tsang, remembered him as “an easy-going, gentle and refined man with a broad-minded outlook and far-reaching vision”.
Critics, however, said his time in office was marked by difficulties in governance and public discontent that did not fully ease after the financial crisis.
Tung is the third figure to receive a state funeral in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover. Industrialist Ann Tse-kai and tycoon Henry Fok, both former vice-chairmen of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, were given the honour in 2000 and 2006 respectively.
