Introduction of Mr. C.H. Tung

Remarks by John J. DeGioia
Introduction of Mr. C.H. Tung
Copley Formal Lounge
Georgetown University
April 22, 2009

It is my great pleasure to welcome all of you to tonight’s lecture. Thank you, Dean Gallucci for your kind introduction…Georgetown will always be indebted to your thoughtful leadership and to the lasting contributions that you have made to our university.

Georgetown’s own mission calls for the dissemination of knowledge and the fostering of interreligious and intercultural understanding as central aspects of the education of our students. We remain true to our role as a university when we provide a forum for ideas to be shared, for relationships to be developed and for assumptions to be challenged. Over the past few years, we have become increasingly engaged with nations and groups in East Asia. And the hallmark of these relationships is exchange and dialogue.

We began this exchange in December of 1978—just as our nations were establishing diplomatic relations—when we hosted the first group of Chinese exchange students from the People’s Republic of China to study in the United States.

Now, three decades later, our two nations…and our university…have never been more engaged…and our engagement has never been more important. Only together will we be able to solve the significant challenges that face our world today.

It is in this spirit of friendship and respect that we invite Mr. C.H Tung, the first chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, to share his thoughts on the present relationship between our two nations.

He was born in Shanghai and grew up in Hong Kong before completing his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Liverpool. Following this, he moved to the United States to work for General Electric in Boston and later moved to San Francisco to work for the family company…along the way becoming a fervent fan of the NFL team, the 49ers.

In 1985, he became a member of the People’s Republic of China Consultative Committee for the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR. Between 1992 and 1996, Mr. Tung became an early advisor for Hong Kong affairs. He served on the Executive Council of Hong Kong and as the vice chairman of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Prepatory Committee of the National People’s Congress. From 1997 to 2005 he served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR when it was transferred from British to Chinese control. After leaving office in 2005, he became the vice chairman of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Since then, he has served at several research institutions, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Hoover Institute, and currently works as a Senior Fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center. He currently serves as the Chairman of the China-United States Exchange Foundation which seeks to further develop the relationship between our two nations.

I am honored and privileged to have Mr. C.H. Tung with us today and it is my pleasure to introduce him to you now…