Arthur Li

Arthur Li Kwok-cheung GBS JP (Chinese: 李國章; born 27 June 1945) is a member of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and was Secretary for Education and Manpower from 2002 to 2007. He is the grandson of the co-founder of the Bank of East Asia, Li Koon-chun, and brother of its current chairman, David Li.

An alumnus of St. Paul's Co-educational College and a classmate of Professor Lawrence J. Lau, Li received his medical training at the University of Cambridge. He was subsequently trained at Middlesex Hospital Medical School and Harvard Medical School, before returning to Hong Kong to become the founding chairman of the Department of Surgery and Dean of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Li's tenure as Secretary for Education and Manpower was marked by an era of education reforms that included the School-Based Management Policy. Since 2000, the Education and Manpower Bureau has implemented a number of mandates, including having teachers spend more time with students outside the classroom, adding exams for subjects such as English and history, and ordering that teachers take benchmark assessments to prove their language abilities. Li ostensibly retired from public service in 2007.

In the role, he caused controversy by proposing mergers first between Chinese University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and later between Chinese University and the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Li's appointment by CY Leung to the governing board of the University of Hong Kong in 2015 met with strong criticism from staff (mostly are pro-democrats), a poll shows most of them have little to no confidence in him will uphold academic freedom, and his generally hostile attitude and criticism toward university staff only exacerbated the problem further.

Six months later, when it became known that Li was likely to take over the chairmanship of the Council upon the expiry of the term of Edward Leong on 6 November, there was further strong opposition, with 87 percent of members of HKU Academic Staff Association and almost three-quarters of members of the Professional Teachers Union opposed, due to his stance during the University of Hong Kong pro-vice-chancellor selection controversy.

Reputation

His leadership style has seen him being referred to as "King Arthur" or even "the Tsar".

He was married to Diana Chester, a registered nurse and graduate of New Hall College, Cambridge University who died in 2013. He has two sons.

Before his appointment, Li was Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), as well as:

• Professor of Surgery and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, CUHK
• Member of the Education Commission and Member of the Committee on Science and Technology
• Member of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority
• Member of the Hong Kong Medical Council
• Member of the University Grants Committee
• Member of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong
• Member of the Hospital Governing Committee of United Christian Hospital, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
• Member of the board of directors of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation
• Member of the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute
• Vice-President of the Association of University presidents of China
• Patron of the Royal College of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland
• Regent of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
• Honorary Fellow of the American Surgical Association
• Hon Fellow of the America College of Surgeons
• Hon Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and Glasgow
• Hon Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine