Everything about Anson Chan totally explained
Anson Maria Elizabeth Chan Fang On Sang GBM GCMG (hon.) CBE JP (born
January 17,
1940) is a member of the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong for
Hong Kong Island, succeeding the late legislator
Ma Lik. Before running for LegCo, she served as the head of
Hong Kong's
civil service before and after the territory's handover to the
People's Republic of China from
British colonial rule. She was the first woman and the first
Chinese to hold the second-highest governmental position in Hong Kong.
Since November 2005 she's indentified herself with the
Pro-democracy camp, and won the
December 2007 by-election for the Hong Kong Island seat in the Legislative Council, as an independent.
Biography
Born one of twins in
Shanghai,
China, Anson Chan was educated at Hong Kong's
Sacred Heart Canossian College (formerly known as Italian Convent School and Sacred Heart School) and the
University of Hong Kong. She was further educated at the
Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Chan's father, who was a textile manufacturer, moved the family to Hong Kong in 1948. Her mother
Fang Zhaoling is a well-known painter. Her grandfather,
Fang Zhenwu, was a
Kuomintang general who fought against the
Japanese invasion. Her uncle, Sir
Harry Fang, is a well-known
orthopaedic surgeon in Hong Kong who was named "International Man of the Year" for his work with handicapped children around the world.
In 1950, Chan's father died aged 36, leaving her mother with eight young children. With the support of Chan's grandmother, her mother not only shouldered the responsibility of raising her children, but also tried to pursue her career as an artist. She took two of her sons to study in
England, leaving Chan and her five other siblings in Hong Kong with their grandmother and uncle.
Under her grandmother's strict discipline and high expectations, Chan learned that she'd a duty towards the family and the community and was expected to be upright, diligent and righteous. She earned her pocket money by working as a private tutor and spent a year as a clerk at Queen Mary Hospital. In 1959, Chan entered the
University of Hong Kong to study English literature.. An investigation by Unofficial members of the Executive Council found that Chan had "acted within the law" in respect of her extreme powers, but recommended changes to the law and to the Social Welfare Department's procedures to prevent re-occurrence of similar cases.
From 1987 to 1993, she was Secretary for Economic Services, becoming the 30th and last
Chief Secretary in 1993. She mainly oversaw the localisation of the civil service during her time in this position.
Chan was the first woman and the first
ethnic Chinese to hold the second-highest governmental position in Hong Kong. The highest governmental position, the
Governor, was always held by
Britons before Hong Kong's handover to
People's Republic of China.
Chan was often described during this era as an "Iron Lady", with "an iron fist in a velvet glove". Chan was lauded as the most powerful woman in Asia for her role as the deputy of
British Governor
Chris Patten, and later
Tung Chee-hwa.
SAR administration career
After Hong Kong's handover to China on
July 1,
1997, Chan stayed on as head of the civil service under then
Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. Chan's public utterances on certain matters have sometimes placed her at odds with Tung, but this also earned her the reputation of being "Hong Kong's Conscience". In contrast to the more conservative Tung, Chan has been more forthcoming with supporting democracy and freedom, and faster pace of democratisation.
Defense of press freedom
» When pro-government figures in Hong Kong attacked the
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) for being too critical of the Hong Kong and
Chinese governments, Chan flew to its defence. In the summer of 1999 RTHK became a platform for Taiwan-Mainland China discussions. A local member of the PRC's
National People's Congress, Tsang Hin-chi, urged the government-owned radio station to exercise
self-censorship and not to provide a platform that express the splitting of China;
Xu Simin, a member of
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, urged RTHK to not allow Taiwan's president broadcasts. Chan spoke in a four hour speech after Wang on the importance of press freedom and publication, as she believed in genuine press freedom without external pressures.
Chan agreed in 1999 to delay her retirement until June 2002. However, Chan announced her resignation in January 2001, and officially stepped down in April of the same year. and has since participated in subsequent marches for universal suffrage.
In July 2006, she criticised the Commission on Strategic Development, chaired by Donald Tsang, for being "rather slow and unsatisfactory", and announced her intention to start a "Core Group" to push for taking forward the debate on Hong Kong’s constitutional reforms. It was later announced that the group would consist of:
On
September 23,
2006, in a news conference, Chan proclaimed that she wouldn't run for the position of Chief Executive in 2007.
LegCo campaign 2007
On September 11, 2007, Chan announced that she'd run in the December 2007
by-election for the Hong Kong Island seat in the Legislative Council made vacant by the death of
Ma Lik. During the campaign, she was criticized by Alex Tsui, a former
ICAC official who accused Chan of obtaining a 100% mortgage to purchase a flat in 1993 when she was chief secretary, suggesting an abuse of power. A
City University commentator said the issue marked the start of a smear campaign against Chan, although Chan didn't engage in smear-free politics either, accusing her rival
Regina Ip of being a "fake democrat".
In the early hours of
December 2,
2007, Chan was elected in the by-election with 175,874 votes, securing about 55% of the vote.
Regina Ip, Chan's main rival, had 137,550 votes.
For this election, Chan spent HK$1.81 million, $330,000 more than her pro-Beijing rival
Regina Ip. Her two main donors were Sir Quo-wei Lee and his wife, and Hong Kong Democratic Foundation chairman George Cautherly, who donated HK$250,000 each. Next Media chairman Jimmy Lai chee-ying donated HK$200,000, and the Democratic Party gave HK$65,840 "for services".
Personal
Among her numerous siblings, one brother, David Fang Jin-sheng, was a former orthopaedics lecturer and Hong Kong Academy of Medicine chief, and another brother, John Fang Meng-sang, is a lawyer.
She and her husband have two children, Michelle and Andrew. They have four grandchildren.
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