Andrew Lo, formerly a close aide to ex-Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa, has died suddenly from suspected flu.
Lo, 66, was a top executive at Tung’s family business Orient Overseas. He joined the government as the chief executive office’s senior special assistant after Tung became Hong Kong’s first post-colonial leader.
Sing Tao Daily first reported that Lo told friends that he was suffering from flu and experiencing pain and diarrhoea. He was admitted into the Queen Mary Hospital on Monday, according to a person in politics who was close to Lo. His situation reportedly worsened rapidly and died on Wednesday.
The report said Lo had a healthy lifestyle and regularly hiked and walked dogs.
Oriental Daily, Apple Daily and Ming Pao also cited sources on Thursday stating that Lo had died of flu.
In July 2000, Lo was at the centre of a controversy surrounding the Public Opinion Programme of the University of Hong Kong.
Robert Chung, the director of the programme, revealed that the then-chief executive Tung had tried – through Lo as a middleman – to halt regular polling of his popularity and the government’s credibility.
An independent committee confirmed the allegations. But Lo only resigned at the end of 2001, with the support of Tung.
Lo returned to Orient Overseas, where he remained before he retired. He then became deputy-secretary-general of the NGO China Energy Fund Committee led by Patrick Ho, after it was formed in 2010.
Ho, the secretary for home affairs under Tung, was arrested in New York in November last year, standing accused of leading a multi-million dollar bribery scheme in Africa on behalf of the company behind the NGO.
A staff member at the China Energy Fund Committee who picked up the phone told HKFP that she was “inconvenient to reply” when asked about Lo’s death.
