Shipping industry mourns passing of C.H. Tung

C. H. Tung (Tung Chee-hwa), former head of family shipping business OOCL (Orient Overseas Container Line) and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's first Chief Executive, passed away yesterday aged 89.

Eldest son of shipping magnate C.Y. Tung (Tung Chee-hwa), he was born in Shanghai in 1937 but as child moved with his family to Hong Kong to escape the civil war. He later completed his studies in the UK before gaining a BSc in engineering from the University of Liverpool.

After working in the US for 10 years, including at General Electric, Tung joined the family‘s diversified shipping business in 1965. In 1979, he took over from his father, whose achievements had included successfully pioneering container shipping in Asia, a legacy on which his son was later to build.

The shipping slump of the 1980’s followed, leading OOCL to the brink of bankruptcy, but Tung was able to secure a Communist Party of China-backed $120 million bailout and subsequently return the company to profitability by 1992. This support from the CPC was widely felt to be a factor behind his decision to later abandon shipping, handing over control of OOCL to his younger brother C.C. Tung (Tung Chee-chen), and instead run for election as HKSAR’s first Chief Executive after handover of the territory by the UK in 1997. OOCL itself was subsequently sold to China’s COSCO Shipping in 2018.

After stepping down as Chief Executive in 2005, Tung was appointed as a Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a role he held until 2023.

Following his passing, Chinese state news agency Xinhua has paid tribute C.H. Tung as a "close friend of the Communist Party of China" and an "outstanding contributor" to the One Country, Two Systems principle.

He is survived by wife Betty Chiu Hung Ping, three children and nine grandchildren.