James Tien

James Tien Pei Chun 田北俊
Chairman of the Chairman of the Liberal Party
Incumbent
Assumed office  December, 1998
Preceded by	Allen Lee Peng Fei
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Member of the Hong Kong Parliament for New Territories East
Incumbent
Assumed office  1993
Born	January 8 1947 (1947-01-08) (age 61) Shanghai, China
Nationality	Chinese
Political party	Liberal Party
Residence	Hong Kong
Alma mater	University of Illinois
Occupation	Businessman

James Tien Pei Chun GBS JP (Chinese: 田北俊) (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 December 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 were 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.

Controversies

• On 11 October 2007, it was reported that Tien had accepted MTRC CEO Chow Chung-kong's sincere apology after the latter backed Civic Party barrister Tanya Chan Suk-chong against Liberal Party lawyer and incumbent Mark Lin Man- kit in the district council election for the Peak district.^[1]

Tien explained that Chow would have to bear all the political consequences for his choice of backing a rival party's candidate. Tien made clear that he was personally infuriated by Chow's unfriendly act despite the Liberal Party's loyalty and consistent support for the rail company.^[1] Tien further stated that the MTRC would face probable dissent from Liberal members in future matters involving MTRC inside district councils. ^[2][3]

Tien backed down on 12 October 2007 by sincerely apologising to Chow and the public at large. ^[4][5][6]

See also

• Politics of Hong Kong

Notes