Eric Edward Hotung CBE[1] (June 8, 1926 – September 20, 2017) was a Hong Kong billionaire businessman, financier, and philanthropist.
He returned to Hong Kong during World War II and worked in Tung Wah Hospital.
[2] He also helped negotiate the release of dissident physicist Fang Lizhi, who was seeking refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
He also campaigned for the release of Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, who was put under house arrest for his sympathies with the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
[8] He and Winnie Ho were sued in 2006 by their son, Anthony Hotung, who was not told of his interests in two family trusts upon turning 21.