范徐麗泰

English

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai was born in Shanghai on 20 September 1945, her ancestral home in Ningbo, Zhejiang, and is a Hong Kong politician. In 1949, aged four, she moved with her family to Hong Kong, where her father was a businessman; she attended St. Stephen's Girls' College and then entered the University of Hong Kong, graduating with a BSc in Chemistry and Physics in 1967 and taking first prize in chemistry. After graduating she worked at the university for seven years, during which she earned a diploma in personnel management (1969–71) and a Master of Social Sciences in psychology (1970–73). In 1983 she was appointed to the Legislative Council by Governor Sir Edward Youde, beginning her political career, and as a member she chaired the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education; in 1989 Governor Sir David Wilson appointed her to the Executive Council, where she served until 1992. From 1993 to 1997 she was a member of the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. She became a member of the Provisional Legislative Council in December 1996 and its President from January 1997 to 1998, presiding over its sessions when it met in Shenzhen before the handover. In 1998 she was elected to the first Legislative Council and became its President, going on to serve as President of the second and third councils, holding the office for a total of eleven years (1997–2008) as the SAR's first post-handover LegCo President. Over those eleven years she oversaw the passage of a great many bills and the framing of the council's rules of procedure, and the citation for her award praised her long and distinguished public service in steering the council through the transition period. In March 2008 she was elected to the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress; to avoid a conflict of roles she took leave from the Standing Committee and continued as LegCo President until stepping down in September that year, remaining on the Standing Committee until 2018. She has also served on the University of Hong Kong Council and as chairman of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Council. She was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star in 1998 and the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2007.