Denise Yue Chung-yee () GBS JP (born 1952) was a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

politician and

Secretary for the Civil Service The Secretary for the Civil Service is the head of the Civil Service Bureau in Hong Kong. Unlike other secretaries for bureaux, the Secretary for the Civil Service is filled by an administrative officer from the civil service, who may choose to ...

. Yue graduated from the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

in 1974 and she attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1988 obtaining an

MPA MPA or mPa may refer to: Academia Academic degrees * Master of Performing Arts * Master of Professional Accountancy * Master of Public Administration * Master of Public Affairs Schools * Mesa Preparatory Academy * Morgan Park Academy * Mound ...

during her civil service career. She joined the civil service in 1974 and has served in a number of senior positions, including: * Deputy Director of Regional Services (1991 to 1992) * Deputy Secretary for Trade and Industry (1992 to 1993) * Director-General of Industry (1993 to 1995) * Secretary for Trade and Industry (1995 to 1998) * Secretary for the Treasury (1998 to 2002) * Permanent Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology (Commerce and Industry) (2002 to 2006) She later took up the post of Secretary for the Civil Service since January 2006.

Leung Chin-man controversy

In August 2008, Yue was subject of controversy when the former

Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Permanent may refer to: Art and entertainment * ''Permanent'' (film), a 2017 American film * ''Permanent'' (Joy Division album) * "Permanent" (song), by David Cook Other uses *Permanent (mathematics), a concept in linear algebra *Permanent (cycl ...

Leung Chin-man Leung Chin-man JP (, born 22 November 1945) is a retired senior civil servant in the Government of Hong Kong the former Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands. Government career Leung first joined the Immigration Department in Oct ...

was named deputy managing director and executive director of

New World China Land New World China Land Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate New World Development, itself part of Chow Tai Fook group. New World China Land was spin off from New World Development in 1999 as a separate listed compan ...

. Yue signed off on the approval for Leung to take up the job after it passed through the Advisory committee on post-service employment of civil servants, responsible for vetting the application. After public outcry amidst widespread suspicion of conflict of interest,

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Donald Tsang Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen (; born 7 October 1944) is a former Hong Kong civil servant who served as the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2012. Tsang joined the colonial civil service as an Executive Officer in 1967, occupyi ...

called the Secretary to account. On 15 August, the Civil Service Bureau issued the report requested by Tsang, where they admitted that they had not considered Leung's role in the Hung Hom Peninsula affair when approving his appointment. Sir

asked the SCS to reassess the approval. ''New World'' announced in the early hours of 16 August that Leung had resigned from his post, and would not be seeking compensation from the government for its "inappropriate handling". A

SCMP The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

editorial criticised the "glaring lack of political sense of some of our senior officials." Commentators noted with surprise that there were no demands for Yue's resignation. A political scientist suggested that parties feared that such calls would alienate civil servants in the forthcoming LegCo elections. Donald Tsang confirmed that he was satisfied with Yue's apology and with the explanations offered by her, and would not be seeking her resignation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yue, Denise Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Government officials of Hong Kong Harvard Kennedy School alumni Hong Kong civil servants Living people Hong Kong women in politics 1952 births Recipients of the Gold Bauhinia Star Date of birth missing (living people) 21st-century women politicians