The Honourable Dr. Henry Fok GBM |
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Born |
霍官泰 Fok Koon Tai 10 May 1923 British Hong Kong |
Died | 28 October 2006 Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China |
(aged 83)
Cause of death | lymphoma |
Resting place | Hong Kong |
Other names | 霍英東 |
Spouse(s) | Lui Yin-nei Fung Kin-nei Lam Sue-tun |
Children |
Fok Tsun-ting Fok Tsun-wan Fok Tsun-yu Fok Man-fong Fok Man-bun Fok Man-sun Fok Hin-yeung Fok Hin-suen Fok Hin-kwong Fok Hin-kung Fok Lai-ping Fok Lai-na Fok Lai-lai |
Parent(s) | Fok Yiu-yung Lau Sam-yuen |
Henry Fok | |||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 霍英東 | ||||||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 霍英东 | ||||||||||
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Henry Fok Ying Tung (10 May 1923 – 28 October 2006) was a Hong Kong businessman. He has ancestral roots in Lianxi Village, Panyu, now part of Guangzhou, Guangdong. Fok was the vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of PRC since March 1993, and was possibly the most powerful Hongkonger in the politics of the People's Republic of China. In 2006, the Forbes Magazine ranked Henry Fok the 9th wealthiest tycoon in Hong Kong and 181th wealthiest tycoon in the world, with an established net worth of $3.7 billion. Henry died in Beijing, 2006.
Born on 10 May 1923 in Hong Kong, Fok's father died in a boating accident when he was just seven. He studied at Queen's College, but was not able to finish junior high due to the Japanese invasion in 1937. He worked as a labourer during that time while helping to run the family's small boat business.
After the war, he became a successful businessman. His business interests included restaurants. real estate, casinos and petroleum. Fok reportedly made his first fortune gun-running into the mainland during the Korean War in the early 1950s, circumventing a United Nations arms embargo. Fok vigorously denied weapons trafficking, but admits having violated sanctions by smuggling steel and rubber as well as other items.
He was the President of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, the President of the Hong Kong Football Association, and the President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong. He was also the Chairman of Henry Fok Estates Ltd and the Yau Wing Co of Hong Kong.