Hong Kong tobacco tycoon Charles Ho dies at 75 after lung cancer diagnosis
Hong Kong tobacco and media tycoon Charles Ho Tsu-kwok, formerly the chairman of the Sing Tao News Corporation, has died at the age of 75.
He revealed in February that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer last year.
Two sources confirmed his death on Thursday, with one saying he died on Tuesday.
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Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu expressed sorrow over Ho's death and extended his condolences to his family.
"Mr Ho was a successful entrepreneur who made contributions to the media industry over the years ... actively being involved in national affairs and providing insights on the long-term development of Hong Kong," he said.
He noted Ho's contributions to a wide range of charitable causes.
Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau expressed deep sorrow over Ho's death, saying: "Even after suffering from a severe illness caused by tobacco, he bravely shared his personal experience with the public, raising awareness about the dangers of smoking."
Former city leader Leung Chun-ying recalled that while Ho had openly opposed him when he was running for the top job back in 2012, the pair got along afterwards, with the tycoon being his frequent guest at Government House.
He said they had dinner together two or three weeks ago, and the tycoon looked fine.
Ho was a standing committee member of China's top political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and controlled the Sing Tao News Corp before he sold his shares in 2021.
He was well-known for his outspoken views on politics. Ho launched a scathing attack on Leung during the chief executive race in 2012.
Having backed Henry Tang Ying-yen, Ho questioned Leung's ability to govern, saying he had "no way to understand his personality and his political platforms".
He dismissed Leung's accusation at the time that the Sing Tao Group was conducting a smear campaign against him, calling the allegations "total nonsense".
"Not everyone agreed with Charles, but his insights were worth listening to," Leung wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
Ho was a staunch opponent of the 2014 Occupy Central civil-disobedience movement, but was also at times vocal about government policies.
Ho nominated Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor for the city's top job in 2017, but their relationship quickly soured as the tycoon became increasingly frustrated over the economy and growing social unrest.
In 2019, Ho was among the business leaders who urged Lam's administration to think carefully before pushing ahead with an unpopular extradition bill, which triggered months of anti-government protests.
"In the past, we have said that as we did business on the mainland, we could feel relaxed and comfortable when we returned to Hong Kong," Ho said at the time. "I hope they can still feel the same in the future."
The ill-fated bill would have allowed for the transfer of suspects to jurisdictions including mainland China, Taiwan and Macau.
Ho publicly urged Lam not to run for a second term, deeming her responsible for the wave of social unrest.
He also ran a full-page advertisement in Sing Tao Daily in 2020, urging her to use public funds to pay two months of wages across the private sector to keep workers employed and to learn from other governments in formulating Covid-19 relief measures.
The tycoon inherited the tobacco empire of his grandfather, Ho Ying-chie , who founded the Hong Kong Tobacco Company.
Charles Ho, who started smoking at 16 years old, had criticised the government's smoking control measures.
He hit out at health minister Lo over his aggressive promotion of anti-smoking measures, saying "one has freedom in deciding whether to smoke" and that death was a "personal matter".
But in February, Charles Ho revealed his lung cancer diagnosis and said he had been receiving treatment in Hong Kong.
He said the strain of undergoing chemotherapy had caused him to change his mind on smoking, adding he had decided to kick the habit and wanted to thank the health minister for his promotional campaigns on the issue.
In March, the pair appeared together on a television programme urging residents to quit smoking.
The tycoon, who was interviewed by Lo on the show, shared that he had told other smokers that the health minister was "like a drone, monitoring the whereabouts of smokers".
But the "very painful" process of chemotherapy and radiotherapy had prompted him to quit, with the former Sing Tao News Corp boss saying he would "rather be cut by a knife once instead of enduring one week of chemotherapy".
Lung cancer is the city's most common and deadly cancer. According to the Hong Kong Cancer Registry, there were 5,707 people newly diagnosed with lung cancer in 2022, when more than 3,700 people died of the disease.
Additional reporting by Danny Mok
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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