Yeung Kwong
| Yeung Kwong | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 楊光 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 杨光 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Yáng Guāng |
Yeung Kwong, GBM (1926 – 16 May 2015) was a Hong Kong communist trade unionist and activist. He was leader of the 1967 Leftist Riots against British rule in Hong Kong.
Born in 1926, Yeung became a member of the Hong Kong Tramways Workers Union in 1948 and led strikes by Hong Kong Tramway's fare conductors the following year.
He served as chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), the largest pro-CPC labour union in Hong Kong, from 1962 to 1980, and then its president between 1980 and 1988. From 1973 to 1987, he was a local deputy to the National People's Congress.
During the Hong Kong 1967 Leftist riots, which was inspired by the Cultural Revolution and escalated from a labour dispute at a plastic-flower factory in San Po Kong, Yeung served as director of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Committee for Anti-Hong Kong British Persecution Struggle. Thousands were injured and 51 died, 15 of whom were killed in bombings planted by the Leftists.
Nominated by the FTU, then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest honour in Hong Kong, to Yeung for his "outstanding contribution to the labour movement and labour welfare in Hong Kong and for his dedicated community service" in 2001.
The award ceremony was held on 13 October 2001, and controversy immediately rose after the announcement, with many people believing that Tung, who was seeking re-election at the time, was pandering to the FTU, which is an important bloc of vote in the unique Chief Executive election system in Hong Kong. Yeung had in 1996 and 2002 sat on the Election Committee that elected Tung as Chief Executive. Some critics asserted that Yeung was not suitable for the highest honour of the land. Critics argued the event was a symbolic gesture for approval of the 1967 riot. Criticisms were also from victims of the riots and officials responsible for putting down the unrest, but the government declined to say if Yeung's "contributions" included what he did during the protests.
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