Hong Kong’s Margaret Chan voted to lead World Health Organization in 2006 – SCMP archive

Hong Kong’s former director of health Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun made history yesterday (November 8, 2006) when she was nominated World Health Organisation director-general in a resounding victory that saw her lead all the way in four rounds of voting.

Dr Chan, 59, is expected to be endorsed today by the 193-member World Health Assembly, making her the first Chinese to lead a United Nations agency and the first from Hong Kong to lead any important international agency.

Proposed by China, which provided strong support throughout her campaign, Dr Chan picked up 24 votes in the last round, against 10 for Mexico’s Julio Frenk, two days after emerging at the top of a shortlist of five.

Dr Chan’s nomination was supported by the US, it was revealed yesterday.

Kuwait’s Kazem Behbehani, Spain’s Elena Salgado and Japan’s Shigeru Omi were eliminated in earlier rounds.

In brief remarks to the WHO executive board, Dr Chan pledged to “work tirelessly with my eyes on the goals we agree on together, my ears open to voices of all, and my heart committed to the populations of our countries”.

The former city health chief, who shook off criticism of her handling of the Sars crisis in 2003 to make a meteoric rise through the ranks of the UN health agency, said she had the “commitment, passion and humility” to serve the member states.

“I also have the determination to achieve results for health. I am sure we have the power to do so.”

She will succeed Lee Jong-wook of South Korea who died in May, three years into his five-year term.

Dr Chan will begin her term as the WHO’s chief technical and administrative officer on January 4 and will serve until June 30, 2012.

She will be paid nearly US$218,000 a year.

Mainland state media quickly reported Dr Chan’s victory, praising her for her work at the WHO.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing yesterday revealed the US had supported Dr Chan’s bid.

In his meeting with US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns in Beijing, Mr Li took the unusual step of publicly thanking the US for voting for Dr Chan.

“We thank the United States for its support for Margaret Chan,” Mr Li told Mr Burns.

“She is a very capable person. This is also the first time that China has chosen one of its citizens to run for a senior post of an UN organisation.”

Reaction to Dr Chan’s victory was mixed in Hong Kong, as feelings still run high among some over her performance during Sars.

Dr Chan gained international recognition for alerting the world to H5N1 bird flu, which first jumped the species barrier in Hong Kong in 1997, killing six of 18 people infected.

Her decision to cull all poultry earned her a WHO citation for stopping a potential pandemic.

As the Sars outbreak ended in mid-2003, she retired from the government to take up a WHO post as a department director.

After two years at the WHO she was promoted to assistant director-general for communicable diseases and the director-general’s representative for pandemic influenza.

Acting WHO chief Anders Nordstrom cited Dr Chan’s technical and management skills as well as her being “an excellent communicator” as reasons for choosing her.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, on a visit to Brussels, said: “For Hong Kong, this nomination comes not only as enormous happiness for us, it certainly makes us feel very proud that we are able to contribute to a global organisation such as WHO through the work of our Hong Kong person.”

Health Minister Gao Qiang said: “Dr Chan will certainly discharge her duty faithfully to serve the WHO and people in all countries.”