Laura Cha

The Honourable
Laura Cha Shih May-lung
查史美倫
Non-official Member of the
Executive Council of Hong Kong
Assumed office
19 October 2004
Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa
Sir Donald Tsang
Leung Chun-ying
HK Deputy to the NPC
Assumed office
2008
Chairman Wu Bangguo
Congress 11th NPC
Personal details
Born

1949 (age 66–67)

Alma mater BA, University of Wisconsin–Madison
JD, Santa Clara University
Laura Cha Shih May-lung
Traditional Chinese 查史美倫
Simplified Chinese 查史美伦

Laura Cha Shih May-lung[1](5 December 1949[2]), GBS, JP, is a Hong Kong businesswoman and politician. She is a non-official member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, Chairperson of Preparatory Task Force on the Financial Services Development Council, and Non-Executive Deputy Chairman of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Life in the United States

Cha earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Juris Doctor degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law.[3] She was a member of the Committee of 100, a Chinese American political and cultural organisation.[2] She practised law in the 1980s in San Francisco with Pillsbury Madison and Sutro.

Return to Hong Kong

After her return to Hong Kong, Cha continued practising law with Coudert Brothers. She worked at Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission from 1991 to early 2001, becoming its Deputy chairman in 1998. She served as Hong Kong's delegate to the 11th National People's Congress, Vice-Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the CSRC, Chairman of the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Millstein Center of Corporate Governance and Performance at Yale University.

Cha was Vice-Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) from 2001 to 2004. She was appointed to the post by the State Council of the People's Republic of China and became the first person outside mainland China to join the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China at the vice-ministerial rank. She renounced US citizenship to take up the position.[4]

In 2012, Cha was named an Honorary Fellow by the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute.

2014 Hong Kong protests controversy

Cha was reported by The Standard to have likened the pro-Occupy activists demand for democracy in the 2014 Hong Kong protests to the emancipation of African-American slaves at a conference at Paris, asking why Universal Suffrage "could not wait" for Hong Kongers in light of the historical disenfranchisement of African Americans.[5][6] Her remarks were criticised on social media, with a petition on Change.org stating that the signatories, "will not stand these remarks likening our rights to slavery, nor will we stand the kind of voter disenfranchisement her and her associates attempt to perpetrate on the Hong Kong public."[5][7]

In response, Cha stated that she had in no way made any comparison of the Hong Kong protests to the emancipation of African American slaves. In her interview she had simply made the point that in every country, the electoral system and voting mechanisms evolved over time. It had done so in France, in the UK, in the United States and elsewhere. She further explained that the National Peoples' Congress decision of August 31, 2014 was the beginning of Hong Kong's journey to full democracy, and that Hong Kong should accept the package now... and improve upon it over time. "

References

  1. ↑ "Executive Council of Hong Kong SAR". Government of Hong Kong. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Greater China regulation and policy expert joins HSBC board" (Press release). HSBC Holdings plc. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  3. ↑ "Laura May-Lung Cha". The State Bar of California. 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  4. ↑ "查太放棄美國籍移居北京 (Mrs. Cha renounced U.S. citizenship and moved to Beijing)". Sing Tao Daily. 14 February 2001. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  5. 1 2 "Thousands denounce HSBC board member's likening of Hong Kong people to freed slaves". Reuters. 31 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Don't be a slave to reform, says finance figure". The Standard. 30 October 2014.
  7. ↑ http://whbl.com/news/articles/2014/oct/31/thousands-denounce-hsbc-board-members-likening-of-hong-kong-people-to-freed-slaves/
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