Patrick Ho Chi-ping (born 24 July 1949 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgery, surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Followin ...

turned politician. He joined the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, zh, 中国人民政治协商会议), also known as the People's PCC (, ) or simply the PCC (), is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of ...

and the Preparatory Committee of Hong Kong SAR. When the

Principal Officials Accountability System Principal Officials Accountability System, commonly referred to as the Ministerial system (), sometimes the Accountability System, was introduced in Hong Kong by chief executive Tung Chee Hwa in July 2002. It is a system whereby all principal ...

was introduced in 2002,

Chief Executive of Hong Kong The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and head of the Government of Hong Kong. The position was created to replace the office of governor of ...

Tung Chee-wah Tung Chee-hwa (; born 7 July 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He is currently a vice-chairman of the Chin ...

appointed Ho

Secretary for Home Affairs The Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs is the head of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong, which is responsible for local issues, and the provision of community and youth services. List of office holders Registr ...

, a senior ministerial post. He was convicted of bribery offences in a U.S. federal court in 2018. The Medical Council of Hong Kong ruled that his name was removed from the General Register for a period of 1 year from May 2021.

Education and ophthalmologist career

Ho studied in the

Diocesan Boys' School The Diocesan Boys' School (DBS) is a day and boarding Anglican boys' school in Hong Kong, located at 131 Argyle Street, Hong Kong, Argyle Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon near Mong Kok East station. The school's mission is "to provide a liberal educat ...

, Hong Kong. He won a scholarship and was educated in the US for 16 years. An

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 The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...

Political career

Since 1993, he has been a member of the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th National Committee of the

, 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. Ho was appointed vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute in 1996. In July 1997, he was appointed to the

Provisional Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Services ...

until its disestablishment in 1999. In 2000, Ho was appointed Chairman of the Arts Development Council. In 2002, he joined the

's second HKSAR administration as the

when the

was introduced. He served in this senior ministerial post for five years. In 2003, Ho was present at the

Che Kung Temple Che Kung Miu (), also called Che Kung Temple, are temples dedicated to Che Kung, who was a general during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) in imperial China. He is believed by some worshipers to have been involved in the attempt to ...

in Sha Tin following tradition and drew ''Kau Chim'' sticks to foretell the fortune of Hong Kong. He drew number 83 which represented bad times ahead. Hong Kong experienced a fatal SARS outbreak and an attempted imposition of

Basic Law Article 23 Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 () is an article in the Basic Law, the constitution of Hong Kong. It states that Hong Kong "shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's ...

, which led to massive protests at the 1 July march. Ever since, no Hong Kong minister has represented the government to the temple. Ho was appointed chairman of the Sports Council in 2005. After leaving the government in 2007, he joined a lobbying firm established and funded by

CEFC China Energy CEFC China Energy () was a Chinese conglomerate. The company was among the 10 largest private companies in China in 2014. In 2017, the company was listed as 222 on the Fortune Global 500. In March 2020, the company -- along with its subsidiaries C ...

(CEFC), a Shanghai-based energy company, of which he became vice-chairman and secretary-general. The organisation, under Ho, was a leading exponent of the

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...

's Belt & Road Initiative.

Bribery and money laundering arrest and conviction

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 The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law that prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. The FCPA is applicable world ...

(FCPA) and money laundering. 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 million-dollar bribes were disguised as donations. The energy fund, chaired by

Ye Jianming Ye Jianming (; born 23 February 1977 − disappeared from public view in March 2018) is a Chinese businessman. He is the founder and former chairman of CEFC China Energy Company Limited, a now defunct company that used to be a Global Fortune 500 ...

, denied authorising Ho to engage in corrupt practices. James Biden, brother of Joe Biden, got a call from Patrick Ho when Ho was arrested by the FBI. James Biden said he believed it had been meant for

Hunter Biden Robert Hunter Biden (born February 4, 1970) is an American attorney who is the second son of President of the United States, U.S. President Joe Biden and his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden. He is also a hedge fund, venture capital, and privat ...

, the son of Joe Biden. On 5 December 2018, Ho was convicted on seven counts of bribery and money laundering, following a federal trial in which Gadio stood as a witness for prosecutors. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and fined $400,000 in March 2019. After being imprisoned at the

Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York The Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York (MCC New York) is a United States federal administrative detention facility in the Civic Center of Lower Manhattan, New York City, located on Park Row behind the Thurgood Marshall United States ...

, as of 9 June 2020, the ''South China Morning Post'' reported that Ho has been released and deported to Hong Kong.

Family

Ho has a daughter and a son from his marriage to a Chinese woman in the US. After returning to Hong Kong in 1984, he divorced his wife. Ho married

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese actress Sibelle Hu Huizhong on 5 September 1997. They have one daughter, Audrey Ho Ka-chun.

Other titles and memberships

* Special Honours by the

Chinese Medical Association In China, the practice of medicine is a mixture of government, charitable, and private institutions, while many people rely on traditional medicine. Until reforms in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, physicians were quasi-governm ...

(CMA) * Past member of the Preparatory Committee on Chinese Medicine and the Provisional Urban Council

References