This week in high-profile Hong Kong deaths, the city says goodbye to three equally prominent but vastly different men.
Hari Harilela – who founded the Harilela Group in 1959, serving up tailor-made suits with his brothers before going on to own 19 hotels across the world – died at his home in Kowloon Tong in the early hours of Monday morning.
The 92-year-old, who was born in Sindh, former British India (now Pakistan) but moved to Hong Kong in 1930, was known for his extensive charity work and for being Hong Kong’s richest Indian.
According to the Standard, more than 100 members of his extended family live in his mansion at 1 Durham Road!
It was also confirmed late last night that disgraced former Hong Kong Stock Exchange Chairman Ronald Li died on Saturday at the age of 85 after a long battle with cancer.
Li served 30 months of a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of taking bribes for approving listings in 1990. At the time of his incarceration he was said to be worth HKD10 billion, with his vast stock portfolio earning him HKD5 million a day while his was in jail.
Li, whose family is comprised of numerous bigwigs in Hong Kong’s political, business and judicial circles, said he planned a life of “golf, films and travel” on his release from jail in 1993.
Finally, Chinese state-run newspaper the Guangzhou Daily has reported that a man known as “Hong Kong’s first spy” has died at the age of 91. John Tsang, 91, was reportedly suffering from an illness, the exact nature of which was left to the readers’ imaginations.
Tsang was deported to China from his position in Hong Kong’s police force in 1961 after accusations of espionage. Such accusations are still shrouded in mystery, however, as no trial was held in Hong Kong, and the mainland government has never confirmed or denied the allegations.
However, according to the memoir of a former special branch officer, Tsang was arrested after a suspicious man found on the Lo Wu border (with tonnes of cash and microfilm concealed in a bandage) named the assistant superintendent as his contact in Hong Kong following days of torture and interrogation.
Philanthropist, bribe taker, spy (or maybe not), may they all rest in peace.
Photo: Longzijun via Flickr
