Before then, capital punishment was the usual sentence given since the establishment of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong for offences such as murder, kidnapping ending in death, and piracy.
[2] Wong was a Chinese-Vietnamese who, on 3 July 1966, was burgling the Chung Keen Company building in Sham Shui Po when he was spotted by security guard Chan Fat-sang (Chinese: 陳佛生).
[3][4] After his conviction, Wong attempted to appeal the sentence, claiming that he had confessed under duress, and also wrote to the Governor of Hong Kong David Trench, seeking clemency.
[5] The Governor of Hong Kong would as a matter of course commute the sentences of those convicted under the death penalty to life imprisonment under the Royal prerogative of mercy.
Even after the abolition of the death penalty in Hong Kong, there were still cases of Hongkongers sentenced to death in other countries, notably serial killer Charles Ng in California, United States,[9] and several Hong Kong-born drug traffickers in Singapore, including Elke Tsang Kai-mong, Tong Ching-man, and Poon Yuen-chung.