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

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

turned politician. He joined the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s United front (China), united front system. Its members adv ...

and the Preparatory Committee of Hong Kong SAR. When the

Principal Officials Accountability System In Hong Kong, the Principal Officials Accountability System ( zh, t=主要官員問責制, labels=no) was introduced by inaugural chief executive Tung Chee Hwa in July 2002. It is a system whereby all principal officials, including the Chie ...

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 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 Regist ...

, 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. The school's mission is "to provide a liberal education based on Christianity ...

, 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 university, public research university in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. Established in 1963 as a federation of three university college, collegesChung Chi College, New Asia Coll ...

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

Tung Chee-wah'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 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, 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, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...

'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 Bribery, bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. The FCPA is applic ...

(FCPA) and money laundering. The pair offered a US$2 million bribe to former Chad President

Idriss Déby Idriss Déby Itno ( '; 18 June 1952 – 20 April 2021) was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the sixth List of heads of state of Chad, president of Chad from 1991 until his death in 2021 during the 2021 Northern Chad offensive, No ...

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) 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 energy and finance conglomerate. He has been u ...

, denied authorising Ho to engage in corrupt practices. James Biden, brother of

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

, 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 February4, 1970) is an American attorney and businessman. He is the second son of former president Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was a founding board member of BHR Partners, a Chine ...

, the son of

. 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 temporarily closed United States federal administrative detention facility in the Civic Center of Lower Manhattan, New York City, located on Park Row behind the Thurgood Mars ...

, as of 9 June 2020, the ''

South China Morning Post 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 remaine ...

'' reported that Ho has been released and deported to Hong Kong.

Subsequent legal matters

In 2023, Ho was identified in a US federal criminal indictment of Gal Luft in a Chinese government attempt to influence the

2016 United States elections Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. Republican Party (United States), Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Democratic Party (United States), Democratic former Secretary of State (Uni ...

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. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

ese actress Sibelle Hu Huizhong on 5 September 1997. They have a daughter, Audrey Ho Ka Chun, born in 2000.

References