Cheung Tze-keung

Cheung Tze-Keung (Chinese: 張子強; died December 16, 1998), portrayed as Cheung Chi-Keung in the movie "The Big Spender," is also known as "the Big Spender." He was a notorious Hong Kong gangster. He was an arms smuggler and was wanted for murder.

He is best known for pulling off several kidnappings of business tycoons and their family members. Some of his alleged victims include Walter Kwok, chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties and Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, son of Li Ka Shing, from which he reportedly reaped a total of $127 million USD in ransom money. However, these kidnappings were not reported to the Hong Kong Police.

Cheung's kidnappings purportedly caught the personal attention of then PRC President Jiang Zemin, who took action after a meeting with Victor's father Li Ka Shing. At the time, Cheung had already fled to southern China, in the Guangdong province, and had allegedly bribed the police there. However, after an order by President Jiang Zemin, Cheung was arrested in connection with the attempted kidnapping of a tycoon (some reports suggested the victim, who remained unnamed in the trial, was Victor Li). In 1998, he was tried and executed in Guangzhou by a firing squad.

The trial was held in Guangzhou even though the events occurred in Hong Kong. This engendered a crisis of faith in the judicial independence of Hong Kong, that is explicit in the Hong Kong Basic Law that had been implemented after the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty to the People's Republic of China. However, the Chinese Government argued that though the crimes were carried out in Hong Kong, it had been planned in China, so the PRC was entitled to exercise jurisdiction over the case. Also, the families of the kidnapped did not report the incidents to Hong Kong Police, some suggested that the HK police could not exercise jurisdiction over mainland China where Cheung was hiding, while others maintained that the Li and Kwok families could get their revenge on Cheung since a trial in the mainland could guarantee the death penalty (where as capital punishment is not in force in Hong Kong). The trial was criticized by some human rights observers for its lack of transparency, as Cheung's mother and lawyer were not allowed in the courtroom, and others alleged that the PRC was holding the trial in secrecy to cover up embarrassing links that military officers had sold weaponry to Cheung.

It is reported the time of his capture, Cheung planned to kidnap another Hong Kong tycoon, Stanley Ho, then the sole operator of casinos in Macau. A large amount of explosives and guns were found in a remote location in Hong Kong, which Cheung intended to use to carry out his plan. Cheung targeted Stanley Ho because he had lost most of the ransom money he received from the previous kidnappings in the Macau casinos that Ho operated.

Fictionalized accounts of Cheung Chi Keung's kidnapping of the wealthy have been made into movies:

• Operation Billionaires (English title) starring Simon Yam.
• Big Spender (English title) starring Ray Lui Leung-Wai.