Economist and social activist Tsang Shu-ki dies at 64

A pioneering scholar who advocated government intervention during the golden age of the free market economy has died.

Tsang Shu-ki, a former economics professor at Baptist University, died at age 64 after a choking incident last Saturday.

His close friends said that with Tsang's passing, the city had lost a humble, broad-minded scholar who cared deeply for society's underprivileged.

Tsang was among the few local economists in the 1980s who believed the free market was not all-powerful and called for government intervention to boost employment for the poor and unskilled.

"Tsang believed the government has an important role to play in wealth redistribution," said Dr Fung Ho-lap, an adjunct associate professor of social work at Chinese University who had known Tsang since their undergraduate days.

Tsang studied philosophy and political science as an undergraduate at the University of Hong Kong in the 1970s.