HONG KONG, Oct 29: Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung, whose business and political influence and close ties to Beijing earned him the nickname “the Godfather”, has died in the Chinese capital aged 83, China reported on Sunday.

The official Beijing Youth Daily cited sources confirming his death but gave no details. Hong Kong’s Sunday Morning Post said he had been suffering from cancer.

Fok, a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), died at Peking Union Medical College Hospital on Saturday evening, the Post said.

Long seen as one of the Hong Kong figures best connected in Beijing, Fok was a trusted confidant of many mainland leaders.

Born in 1923 at Panyu, in Guangdong province which borders Hong Kong, Fok rose from humble roots to become one of the city’s wealthiest and most powerful men.

In 1993, with Hong Kong still under British colonial rule, Beijing made Fok a vice-chairman of the CPPCC, the Chinese parliament’s main consultative body, putting him in the same league as the country’s most senior leaders.—Reuters