He continued to hold the post after the city's handover to China until his resignation in 1998, ending his 25-year career as a civil servant.
While going to school at Queen's College, he had an affinity for basketball and football, and founded the student newspaper, The Courier, in 1969.
[2] In February 1995 Lai was appointed the first ethnic Chinese Secretary for Security of the Hong Kong Government.
Lai said Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa had asked him to stay and the timing of his resignation was "something which is impossible to explain".
[5] He was an Associate with the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, specialising in Hong Kong's politics and constitutional developments from 1998 to 2005.