Patrick Ho

Patrick Ho Chi-ping JP (Chinese: 何志平; pinyin: Hé Zhìpíng; Jyutping: Ho4 zi3 ping4; born 24 July 1949 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong ophthalmologist and former Secretary for Home Affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

He joined the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Preparatory Committee of the SAR.^[1]

Education

Ho studied in the Diocesan Boys' School, Hong Kong. He won a scholarship and was educated in USA for 16 years. He is an ophthalmologist who trained in eye surgery with special expertise in retinal surgery, he was a fellow at Harvard Medical School. He returned to Hong Kong in 1984 and taught eye surgery at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as Professor of Ophthalmology. From 1988 to 2000, he was Professor of Surgery (Ophthalmology) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Family

His wife is the former Taiwanese actress Sibelle Hu. His daughter is Audrey Ho Ka Chun

Political

Since 1993, he has been a member of the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and in 1995, he was appointed as a member of the Preparatory Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Selection Committee of the first SAR Government. He was the vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute. In July 1997, he was appointed to the Provisional Urban Council. In 2002, he joined the second HKSAR administration as the Secretary for Home Affairs, from which he stepped down in 2007. After leaving, he joined a lobbying firm established and funded by CEFC China Energy (CEFC), a Shanghai-based energy company.^[2]

Ho and former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Gadio were arrested in New York in late November 2017, charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering. The US Justice Department alleged that the pair offered a US$2 million bribe to the president of Chad for oil rights, and deposited a US$500,000 bribe to an account designated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uganda on behalf of CEFC. The USJD alleges that the million-dollar bribes were dressed as donations.^[3] The energy fund, chaired by Ye Jianming (a political consultant to prominent pro-Beijing legislator Regina Ip's New People's Party), denied authorising Ho to engage in corrupt practices.^[4]

Bribery charges^[5]

Ho was arrested Saturday November 18, 2017 and subsequently indicted^[6] in the same month for allegedly offering $2 million to the president of Chad in order to facilitate oil rights for a Chinese energy company and $500,000 to the foreign minister of Uganda to secure a banking deal for the company. In April, he filed a motion to dismiss certain of the FCPA counts. The indictment charged Ho, who has been detained for eight months, with substantive violations of two different FCPA provisions, the domestic concern statute^[7] based on actions taken in his role as an agent of an organization located in the United States and the territorial jurisdiction statute^[8] based on conduct within the United States.

The indictment also charged him with conspiring with consultant and former Senegalese minister Cheikh Gadio to violate both statutes.

Other titles and membership

• Special Honours by the Chinese Medical Association (CMA)
• Vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute
• Past member of the Preparatory Committee on Chinese Medicine and the Provisional Urban Council
• Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Publication

• China Eye
• CHina Energy Journal
• China Energy Focus
• The Belt and Road Monograph

See also

• CEFC calls for solidarity of Chinese people
• Hong Kong Lunar New year kau cim tradition

References