The death of the Queen in the United Kingdom has attracted the attention of the whole world. Many people know that Li Ka-shing was personally awarded the Order of the British Queen in 2000 and received the British KBE Medal. This is a medal that should be the second highest rank.
In fact, among the rich people in Hong Kong, there are not many people who have won the British Medal, in addition to Li Ka-shing, there is also Li Guobao, the chairman of the Bank of East Asia. This Li Guobao is definitely a legend in Hong Kong, but unfortunately many mainland friends do not know him.
Many people may not know why some Hong Kong rich people are called jazz, such as Sir Bao Yugang and Sir Run Run Shaw. Because when they get the Royal Order of England, if they are still British nationals, then they can be called Sir So-and-so.
Before the handover, these Hong Kong rich people were naturally British nationals, so there were many people who were called jazz at that time. There are also some people who retain British citizenship after their return, so they will also be called jazz.
Li Ka-shing once received the KBE Medal, but no one called him Sir Li Ka-shing, which also shows that Li Ka-shing does not have British citizenship. In 2005, Lee received the Queen's ObE Medal, which is one notch lower than KBE.
After receiving this medal, Li Guobao also voluntarily gave up his British citizenship. Because that year Lee Joined the Executive Council of Hong Kong and became a member of parliament. Because to be a parliamentarian, you must have only one Nationality in China. Hong Kong follows the British nationality system, so it is possible to have dual citizenship. In fact, there are more than 7 million people in Hong Kong, of whom four million have British BNO passports.
However, Li Guobao voluntarily gave up his British citizenship, which is still worthy of our admiration. The Lee Family is also a very patriotic magnate, and it has a very long history, which is more influential than the Li Ka-shing family in Hong Kong. When Ho Hung Sun died in 2020, the Ho Hung Sin family invited Lee Guobao to help Ho Hung Sun to help him, which also shows Li Guobao's status in the jianghu.
Li Guobao's wife is called Pan Jincui, and she is the sister of Pan Disheng, a rich Man in Hong Kong. Pan Disheng is the owner of the Di Sheng Group, and his two ex-wives are Yang Minde and Yang Ziqiong. Yang Minde is Hong Kong's textile queen, the Same Hong Kong female entrepreneur who became popular because of Xinjiang cotton two years ago. Yang Ziqiong is a famous Chinese female star.
Lee's Bank of East Asia is also one of the largest banks in Hong Kong, with personal assets of over 10 billion. Li Guobao himself graduated from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and from his great-grandfather Li Shipeng, his family has now been rich for five or six generations. Li Guobao's great-grandfather, Li Shipeng, opened a rice shop in Hong Kong in his early years, and later made a fortune by doing so, becoming a rich man in Hong Kong.
In his later years, Li Shipeng always wanted to establish a bank to serve his compatriots in Hong Kong. In 1919, his son Li Guanchun and Li Zifang joined forces with several Hong Kong billionaires to establish the Bank of East Asia, and their family became the first Chinese bankers in Hong Kong.
Later, they set up a Chinese real estate company. This company is the one controlled by Liu Luanxiong today. It was founded by Li Guobao and his family, but after the 1980s, it was acquired by Liu Luanxiong.
By the third generation of the Li family, their family began to blossom, and their children began to develop in all walks of life in Hong Kong, becoming influential figures. Li Guanchun's eldest son, Li Fushu, also known as Li Guobao's father, became a member of the Hong Kong municipal, legislative and executive councils after returning from studying in the Uk. Lee's second uncle, Lee Fuk Sun, was the first Chinese justice in the history of Hong Kong's High Court, and he was also responsible for participating in the drafting of the Basic Law before Hong Kong's return to china.
Li Guobao's third uncle, Li Fuzhao, is a legend in Hong Kong's financial circles, and can even be said to be a legend in the history of the world's financial industry. In 1968, Lee founded Hong Kong's first Chinese securities firm, Far East Securities. Prior to this, Hong Kong's capital market was controlled by the British, and it was difficult for companies controlled by the Chinese rich to go public for financing.
After the establishment of Far East Securities Bank, a large number of outstanding Chinese entrepreneurs such as Li Ka-shing, Zheng Yutong, Li Shau-kee and other outstanding Chinese entrepreneurs were able to go public, and Chinese businessmen ushered in a real era. Hong Kong's classic TV series "Big Time" was based on this.
In the 1980s, Hong Kong's five major stock exchanges merged to form the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and Li Fuzhao became the first chairman, with a personal net worth of 20 billion yuan at his peak. The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, also under the leadership of Lee Fook Siu, has become one of the most famous exchanges in the world, affecting the global financial market.
In addition, Li Zifang's sons also have many outstanding figures, such as the first Chinese vice president of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the director of the Hong Kong Social Welfare Department, and so on.
In the fourth generation of the national character generation, Li Guobao is naturally the most influential. But there are also many of his cousins who are highly capable. Lee Kwok Neng is the Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, and Lee Kwok-cheung's brother Lee Kwok-cheung, who also graduated from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, later served as the Director General of the Hong Kong Education Bureau, and served as the President of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and he himself is also an internationally renowned doctor.
When Ho died, their family did not invite Li Ka-shing to help the spirit, but invited Li Guobao, which can also show the influence of the Li Guobao family. Li Guobao's son, Li Minqiao, married Luo Baoying, the granddaughter of Luo Yingshi, one of Hong Kong's ten richest people. It can be said that the relationship between the entire Lee Guobao family in Hong Kong is intricate, and compared with them, a family like Li Ka-shing can only be regarded as a new upstart.