The rise and fall of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen – the city’s chief executive who took pride in being a “Hong Kong boy” and pledged to operate in the full glare of publicity – could well be handily summed up by two “firsts”….
The rise and fall of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen – the city’s chief executive who took pride in being a “Hong Kong boy” and pledged to operate in the full glare of publicity – could well be handily summed up by two “firsts”. The 45-year career civil servant hit the spotlight when he became the first Chinese financial secretary in last governor Chris Patten’s sunset colonial administration. But 22 years later, in 2017, Tsang – who climbed to the top before retiring – also became the city’s first former leader to be put behind bars after he was sentenced to 20 months in prison for misconduct in office. His trial not only laid bare Tsang’s web of connections with the city’s rich, but also stood in stark contrast with Tsang’s earlier days when the Wah Yan College boy joined the government as an executive officer in 1967. As the son of a police officer, he had grown up in the police married quarters – now the redeveloped PMQ. Tsang took up various government posts before he was sent by the colonial government to study at Harvard University in the US in 1981 and met now chief executive election contender John Tsang Chun-wah.
