James Tien
The
Honourable James Tien Pei Chun GBS JP () (born
January 8,
1947 in
Shanghai) is currently the Chairman of the
Liberal Party (LP), a pro-business and pro-Beijing
political party in
Hong Kong, and a member of the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). He was also a member of the
District Council of Hong Kong District Council in the
Central and Western district. Professionally he is a garment merchant in Hong Kong, but his companies also invest in property and land development.
His younger brother
Michael Tien is also a businessmen, who owns the fashion chain
G2000 and is the chairman of
Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation.
Tien has been a member of LegCo since
1983, and was the Chairman of the
Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, an influential business organization in Hong Kong. He became the Chairman of the LP after the resignation of its former and founding Chairman,
Allen Lee Peng Fei, in November
1998.
Tien currently serves as a member of the
National Committee of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and general committee member of both the
Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and
Federation of Hong Kong Industries.
Tien joined the
Executive Council, the cabinet of the
Chief Executive of Hong Kong, in July
2002 as the Chairman of LP, following the reorganization of the Council under the new accountability system of the Chief Executive. However, barely after 1 year, Tien announced his resignation from the Executive Council on
July 6,
2003, after his calls to delay the controversial
legislation on Article 23 of the
Basic Law was rejected. His resignation caused the eventual withdrawal of the legislation and break-up of the "ruling alliance" of the Chief Executive, while his popularity and that of LP surged.
Until
2004, Tien held the seat of Commercial (First)
Functional Constituency in LegCo, representing the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce's ~4,000 members. Tien ran for a seat in the geographical constituency of
New Territories East in the
Hong Kong Legislative Council election, 2004 and succeeded.
In
2005, the announcement that his ally Henry Tang has dropped out of the race is another upsetting piece of news about his party's political future. He initially said that he may join the Chief Executive Election, but has since chosen not to run as a candidate.
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Politics of Hong Kong
