Ex-Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui dies at 77

Former Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui died at the age of 77.

Hui, dubbed "Fat Dragon", died of illness this afternoon at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.

Among the highlights of his career, during the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, Hui being the Secretary for Financial Services at the time, alongside then Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Joseph Yam and then Financial Secretary Donald Tsang reached a consensus to deploy more than 100 million dollars in foreign exchange reserves in a decisive intervention against market speculators. The government entered the market to purchase large quantities of Hong Kong equities, successfully repelling speculative attacks. The shares were later divested through the creation of the Tracker Fund of Hong Kong.

But in 2014, after being embroiled in the Sun Hung Kai Properties corruption scandal, Hui was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. He completed his sentence and was released on December 8th, 2019.