Jasper Tsang

Tsang was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China on 17 May 1947. Tsang's father, Tsang Chiu-kan was a clerk at the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, a pro-Beijing business organisation in the colony. His younger brother, Tsang Tak-sing, is the former Secretary for Home Affairs of Hong Kong. He moved to Hong Kong when he was two years old and grew up in Sai Wan's Academic Terrace.Tsang received his primary and secondary education at St. Paul's College run by the Hong Kong Anglican Church. He read Mathematics at the University of Hong Kong, graduating with first class honours.

Tsang grew his patriotic sentiments and interest in Marxism by reading the leftist newspaper Wen Wei Po which his father brought home from work everyday and worshipped Qian Xuesen, a reowned scientist who returned to the mainland from the United States in the 1950s. In 1966, he went back to Guangzhou with his mother and was impressed by the socialist life there. He proclaimed himself a Marxist and studied works of Karl Marx and Mao Zedong with like-minded classmates at a time when the majority of the students at the University of Hong Kong supported the colonial rule and had negative views on the communist regime in China.

He joined several university students in making donations to the leftist unions through Wen Wei Po following the industrial dispute at the Hong Kong Artificial Flower Works in April 1967 which later escalated to large-scale riots. He joined the demonstrations in Central and founded a student journal called New HKU against Undergrad, the journal published by the Hong Kong University Students' Union which was critical of the riots. His brother, Tsang Tak-sing, was arrested, tried and convicted for distributing anti-government leaflets at school.

In 1969, he gave up the plans to further his studies abroad although he had been accepted by four prominent universities in the United States after his brother, Tsang Tak-sing was prosecuted for "distributing inflammatory leaflets" during the riots and was imprisoned for 18 months.

After graduating from the University of Hong Kong, Tsang joined the leftist Piu Kiu Middle School. After the downfall of Gang of Four, Tsang began to question his own beliefs. He obtained a Graduate Diploma of Education in 1981 and a Master of Education at the University of Hong Kong in 1983. He went on to become the principal of the Piu Kiu Middle School in 1986 until he left his position to become a full-time politician. He became the supervisor of the school and was also the supervisor of a newly established direct-subsidised school, the Pui Kiu College.

Stepping into politics

Tsang remained faithful to the Chinese Communist Party. Due to his good education background, Tsang became a high-flyer within the leftist camp. He stepped into the politics in 1976 when he was appointed a member of the Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He became a member of the Conference's National Committee in 1993.

Chairman of the DAB

In 1992, he founded the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong with other local traditional leftists under the direction of Beijing to counter the newly emerging pro-democracy camp. Tsang became the first chairman of the party. He was subsequently appointed to the committee responsible for the preparatory work for the establishment of Hong Kong.

He ran for the DAB in the 1995 Legislative Council elections but was defeated by Bruce Liu from the pro-democracy Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL). He was subsequently elected to the Provisional Legislative Council in 1996 by the Beijing-controlled Selection Committee.

Tsang was first directly elected to the Legislative Council in 1998, representing the Kowloon West constituency. In 2002 he was appointed to the Executive Council by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. In 2002 the fifth anniversary of the Special Administrative Region, he was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the government.

As the ally of the Tung administration, the DAB suffered criticisms with the unpopular government. During the controversy surrounding the enactment of the national security bill in Hong Kong, Tsang drew criticism for his party's support of the government's legislative initiatives. Following the 1 July 2003 protests and disappointing performance of his party in the 2003 District Council elections, he resigned from the party's chairmanship in December 2003.

President of the Legislative Council

He gave up his Kowloon West seat and ran in the Hong Kong Island in the 2008 LegCo election. After the election, he was elected to the presidency of the Legislative Council, replacing the retired Rita Fan. He is widely assumed to be a member of the Chinese Communist Party, in part because, when asked directly, he has stated only that, "Since the foundation of the DAB, I have been asked whether I am a Communist Party member many times. And I can say frankly, I have never answered this question. The reason is, Hong Kong people's attitude to the concept of the Communist Party is very negative." He resigned from the Executive Council after being elected the President.

Tsang was also criticised for the manner in which he presided over Legislative Council meetings, which led to walkout protests, though he was generally perceived to be fair and accommodating and enjoyed friendly relations with both pro-Beijing and pan-democratic members. On the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, which he referred to as "suppressing students was surely wrong."

In the run-up to the 2012 Chief Executive election, he was noted for his relatively liberal views on issues such as universal suffrage, and initially expressed interest in putting himself forward as a candidate, before later backing out.

After the legislative vote of the 2015 Hong Kong electoral reform in which the pro-Beijing legislators undertook a controversial and embarrassing walkout, the Oriental Daily published leaked messages in which Tsang was seen to have discussed voting strategy with a pro-Beijing legislator in a WhatsApp group before the electoral reform package and suggesting the legislators delay their speeches so that the pan-democrats could not control the timing of the vote. The pan-democrats questioned Tsang's neutrality in the chamber, seeing the text messages as "clear evidence" that he was colluding with the rest of the government's allies and planned to mull a no-confidence vote against him. He apologised to the legislators but refused to resign.

On 1 July 2015, Tsang was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the SAR's highest honour, in recognition of his public service, particularly his presidency of the Legislative Council.

After Legco

In July 2016, after announcing the end of his Legislative Council career, Tsang dropped a "political bombshell" by announcing that he was ready to stand in the 2017 Chief Executive election, just as he had publicly toyed with the idea in the 2012 process. He said he would stand against incumbent Leung Chun-ying, expected to seek a second term, in order "to offer a genuine choice". However, two or three months later he was told privately by the Beijing government not to join the process, he later revealed, and so he publicly distanced himself from any run at the CE role, describing it as “not a good position to be in” and adding that it required one to serve “two bosses” – Hong Kong society and Beijing.

Popularity

In annual polls conducted by the University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme, Tsang was voted "Hong Kong’s most popular Legislative Councillor" for each of the last 13 years he was in office, 2004-2016 inclusive. In 2016, his support rating was 63.1 percent, ahead of, in order, Regina Ip with 49.6 percent, Alan Leong Kah-kit with 48.2 percent and Starry Lee Wai-king with a 45.6 percent.

In 2009, Tsang married Ng Kar-man. He was previously married to Young Sun-yee.

In February 2017 Tsang was discovered to have a critical heart condition and underwent angioplasty surgery. Speaking shortly afterwards, he said “I have narrowly escaped death.”