James Tien (politician)

James Tien (politician)

James Tien Pei-chun (born 8 January 1947, Shanghai) is the former Chairman of the Liberal Party (LP), a pro-middle class, pro-business and pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong, and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). He was also a member of the District Council of Hong Kong in the Central and Western district. He is a successful garment merchant with other interests in property development and investment. His younger brother Michael Tien owns the fashion chain G2000 and is a former chairman of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation before its merger with the Mass Transit Railway Corporation.

James Tien was a member of LegCo from 1983, and was the Chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, an influential business organisation in Hong Kong. He became the Chairman of the LP after the resignation of its former and founding Chairman, Allen Lee Peng Fei, in December 1998.

Tien currently serves as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and general committee member of both the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Hong Kong Industries. Tien joined the Executive Council, the cabinet of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, in July 2002 as the Chairman of LP, following the reorganisation of the Council under the new accountability system of the Chief Executive.

After one year, Tien announced his resignation from the Executive Council on 6 July 2003, after his calls to delay the controversial legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law were rejected. His resignation caused the eventual withdrawal of the legislation and break-up of the "ruling alliance" of the Chief Executive, while his popularity and that of LP surged. Until 2004, he held the seat of Commercial (First) Functional Constituency in LegCo, representing the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce's ≈4,000 members. He ran for a seat in the geographical constituency of the New Territories East constituency in the 2004 Legislative Council elections and succeeded. In 2005, the announcement that his ally Henry Tang had dropped out of the race was another upsetting piece of news about his party's political future. He initially said that he may join the Chief Executive Election, but has since chosen not to run as a candidate.

Tien lost his seat in the 2008 Legislative Council elections, when the Liberal Party lost all its Geographical Constituency members, and subsequently announced that he would not participate further in future Legco elections. He also resigned as leader of the Liberal Party.

Tien became involved with the Liberal Party again in 2010 in the capacity of Honorary Chairman. He threw his weight behind his ally Henry Tang in the 2011 Chief Executive election. In 2012, Tien threw his hat into the ring again and successfully re-claimed his seat of the New Territories East constituency in the 2012 Legislative Council elections.