Tung Chee Hwa

     BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Tung Chee Hwa, chief executive ofthe Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), was elected vice chairman of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Saturday at the closing meeting of the top advisory body's annual session.

    Tung, 67, announced in Hong Kong on Thursday that he had officially submitted to the central government his request for resigning from the post as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR.

    Born in Shanghai on May, 1937, Tung moved to Hong Kong with his family.

    He studied in Britain and graduated from the University of Liverpool in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree in marine engineering.

    He then worked for General Electric and his family business in the United States before returning to Hong Kong in 1969 to join the family business.

    Tung became a member of the People's Republic of China (PRC) Consultative Committee for the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR in 1985.

    In 1992, he became one of the first group of advisors on Hong Kong affairs. He served as a member of Executive Council of Hong Kong between 1992 and 1996 and vice chairman of the Hong Kong SAR Preparatory Committee of the National People's Congress in 1995.

    On December 11, 1996, Tung won by a wide margin the first election of the chief executive of the Hong Kong SAR of the PRC.

    He was formally appointed by the State Council on December 16, 1996 and assumed office as the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR on July 1, 1997 for a five-year term.

    Tung was re-elected as the Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive on February 28, 2002 with the nomination by 714 of the 794 Electoral Committee members.

    He was a member of the eighth CPPCC National Committee, and was inducted as a member into the tenth CPPCC National Committee in February 2005. Enditem