Chung Sze-yuen

Sir Sze-yuen Chung GBM GBE FREng ^[1] (Chinese: 鍾士元; born 3 November 1917 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong mechanical engineer, industrialist, business executive and politician. He succeeded Sir Yuet-Keung Kan, as the Senior Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council and Executive Council in 1980 and served in the latter body until his first retirement from politics in 1988.

He once again became influential in Hong Kong politics when Tung Chee-Hwa assumed the office of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong; Tung appointed him as the Convenor of the Executive Council, from which he retired on 15 June 1999.^[2]

Early life

Chung was born in 1917 to a middle-class family in Hong Kong. In 1936, he went to Shanghai and studied civil engineering at Saint John's University, Shanghai. In 1939, he married Cheung Yung-Hing in southeastern Chinese province of Jiangxi (Kiangsi).

Due to the spread of Second Sino-Japanese War, Chung had to return to Hong Kong in 1941 before his undergraduate degree could be completed. He continued his study in mechanical engineering at the University of Hong Kong and graduated. After graduation, he worked as a mechanical engineer for Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock. In 1948, he was awarded a scholarship from University of Sheffield. Three years later he earned his doctorate.

Chung returned to Hong Kong in 1951 and worked as mechanical engineer in a manufacturing firm for 1 year. In 1951, he established his own firm Chung Sze Yuen Engineering.

Honours

• Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) (1968)
• Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) (1975)
• Knight Bachelor (1978)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE) (1989)
• Recipient of the Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM) (1997)
• Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng)^[3] (1983)

References