James Tien
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The Honourable James Tien Pei Chun GBS JP (田北俊) (born January 8, 1947) is currently the Chairman of the Liberal Party (LP), a pro-business and pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong, and a Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). He was also a member of the District Council in the Central and Western district. Professionally he is a garment merchant in Hong Kong, but his companies also invest in property and land development.
His younger brother Michael Tien is also a businessmen, who owns the fashion chain G2000 and is the chairman of Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation.
Tien has been a member of LegCo since 1983, and was the Chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, an influential business organization in Hong Kong. He became the Chairman of the LP after the resignation of its former and founding Chairman, Allen Lee Peng Fei, in November 1998.
Tien currently serves as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and general committee member of both the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Hong Kong Industries.
Tien joined the Executive Council, the cabinet of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, in July 2002 as the Chairman of LP, following the reorganization of the Council under the new accountability system of the Chief Executive. However, barely after 1 year, Tien announced his resignation from the Executive Council on July 6 2003, after his calls to delay the controversial legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law was rejected. His resignation caused the eventual withdrawal of the legislation and break-up of the "ruling alliance" of the Chief Executive, while his popularity and that of LP surged.
Until 2004, Tien held the seat of Commercial (First) Functional Constituency in LegCo. Tien ran for a seat in the geographical constituency of New Territories East in the Hong Kong Legislative Council election, 2004 and succeeded.
In 2005, the announcement that his ally Henry Tang has dropped out of the race is another upsetting piece of news about his party's political future. He initially said that he may join the Chief Executive Election, but has since chosen not to run as a candidate.