Li Ka-shing
Li Ka-shing (born July 13, 1928) is the President of Cheung Kong Holdings.
In-Game Biography
Chief Secretary
A man of humble origins and means, Li Ka-shing cuts an unlikely presence as Guangdong's only major tycoon of purely Chinese origins. Few would have guessed that the elementary school dropout and struggling factory owner would become the representative of the Chinese side of Guangdong's Zhujin community - and neither would have Li, were it not for a chance meeting with Morita Akio in 1952 that changed his life forever.
As the head of Cheung Kong Holdings - a sprawling local conglomerate with its fingers in retail, distribution, light manufacturing, and real estate - Li's commercial success has been intimately tied to Morita's rise in Guangdong. From business partners in the 1950's to their eventual formal alliance as Li diversified into new industries, it is an open secret in Guangdong that the two are political allies, with Li keeping tabs on the pulse of the Chinese and Zhujin population while Morita pitches their reform program to the Japanese expatriate community.
1970s Chief Secretary (Success)
Against all hope, this outcome was what Li Ka-shing had dared to hope for. He has done it. The people of Guangdong, of the Three Pearls and beyond, have been brought up from their former squalor to a new era of prosperity; even better is that within that prosperity has come an opportunity: for riches untold to his name.
Morita Akio's second-in-command has gone through many trials and tribulations. But he knows that his biggest trial is yet to come, and he is resolved: he will not let it undo whatever he has achieved thus far. He will not let himself be returned to the destitution of his plastic factory days.
Never again.
1970s Chief Secretary (Failure)
Li Ka-shing asks himself: was any of this worth it? Was it all a mistake?
Sure, he's made any amount of money, presided over a sea change in the way Guangdong is run. Sure, neither Suzuki Teiichi nor Sun Yat-sen would recognise Guangzhou as he and Morita have made it, here at the end of the New Order. But compared to the hateful faces of his people and the loss of the lives and happiness of his loved ones, are such massive changes, the sign of an alleged 'great leader', truly worth it?
Well, it does not matter. It is the decision Li Ka-shing has made. Making money is all that he has left. He might as well go full-time on it. There's nothing else he can do—unless he wants to waste one second more on his thoughts and succumb to the pain swirling unceasingly in the back of his mind.
- Chinese topics
- Paternalists
- People
- Potential heads of government