程介南

English

Gary Cheng Kai-nam is a former Hong Kong politician and public relations consultant. Born in Hong Kong on 29 May 1950 with family roots in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, he is the brother of the education scholar Cheng Kai-ming. Educated at Pui Kiu Middle School, he worked early on in public relations and marketing, one of the earlier local professionals in that field, and in 1996 he set up his own public relations consultancy, before entering politics, and was one of the founding members of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), founded in 1992, becoming its vice-chairman in February 1997 and so one of its principal leaders. In the 1998 election for the first Legislative Council he was returned for the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency. During the 2000 Legislative Council election he was accused by a newspaper of failing to declare personal interests and of abusing his position, and his campaign briefly faltered, though he was ultimately re-elected alongside Choy So-yuk. Shortly after the election, however, he resigned his Legislative Council seat on 20 September 2000 and gave up all his public posts; the DAB stripped him of all party posts while keeping his membership. He was subsequently prosecuted by the Independent Commission Against Corruption and in 2001 was convicted of misconduct in public office and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. After his resignation a by-election for the Hong Kong Island seat was held that December and was won by Audrey Eu. The affair also prompted wider attention to the rules on legislators' declaration of interests and standards of conduct, and became one of the most closely watched cases in the history of Hong Kong's legislature. Afterwards he stepped back from Hong Kong politics and turned to public relations and mainland business work, later withdrawing from public view.