From the SAR's first integrity report to the University of Macau's Hengqin campus, the World Heritage city centre, and an expanding welfare state — Cheong U spent fifteen years first holding the integrity line in the early years of the SAR, then steering the rapid expansion of Macao's social-and-welfare sphere.
Cheong U is the former Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR (20 December 2009 – 20 December 2014), and before that the SAR's first Commissioner Against Corruption (1999–2009). A public-administration professional with an MPA from Zhongshan University, he was a principal official for fifteen years across the Edmund Ho and Fernando Chui administrations — ten in integrity, five in welfare — one of the few post-Handover officials to lead two entirely distinct policy spines.
Profile
- Chinese Name: 張裕
- English Name: Cheong U
- Born: 1957
- Domains: Politics · Public administration
- Industry: Integrity oversight · Education, health, culture · Social welfare
- Subject type: Official (former Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture)
- Education: Bachelor in administration, University of Macau; Master of Public Administration, Zhongshan University (Guangzhou)
- Terms: Commissioner Against Corruption 1999–2009; Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture 2009–2014
Background
Cheong was born in 1957, part of the local public-administration cohort that bridged the Handover. He holds a bachelor's degree in administration from the University of Macau (formerly the University of East Asia) and a Master of Public Administration from Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, with a professional grounding in auditing and public administration. Before the Handover he gained years of experience in Macao's municipal system — serving on the second Municipal Council, as head of public health and environment for the Islands Municipal Council, vice-chair of the Islands Municipal Executive Committee, and a member of the Islands Municipal Assembly, as well as deputy secretary-general of the Macau Association of Public Administration. He sat on the Selection Committee for the first SAR government, placing him at the core of the SAR's founding arrangements.
Career
I. First Commissioner Against Corruption (December 1999 – December 2009)
When the SAR was established on 20 December 1999, the first Chief Executive, Edmund Ho Hau Wah, appointed Cheong as the first Commissioner Against Corruption (CCAC) of the Macao SAR, replacing the pre-Handover High Commissioner system. Macao's CCAC carries a dual mandate — anti-corruption (investigating public officers) and the ombudsman function (oversight of administrative illegality and impropriety). As the founding Commissioner, Cheong built the CCAC's institutional framework, investigative mechanisms, and administrative-complaints system in the early SAR years, laying the foundation for post-Handover integrity work. He served ten years and was succeeded by Vasco Fong in 2009.
II. Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture (December 2009 – December 2014)
On 20 December 2009 Cheong was sworn in as Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture in Fernando Chui Sai On's cabinet, taking the portfolio Chui himself had held before becoming Chief Executive. The Social Affairs and Culture portfolio is the core of the SAR government's welfare sphere — education and higher education, health, culture, sport, social welfare and social security, and tourism. His tenure coincided with the post-Las-Vegas-overtaking fiscal peak: gaming dividends were flush, government welfare spending expanded sharply, and his portfolio spanned hospital-system expansion, education subsidies, cultural-heritage management (continuing stewardship of the Historic Centre of Macao after its 2005 World Heritage inscription), social-security construction, and the development of the University of Macau's new Hengqin campus. He stepped down on 20 December 2014 and was succeeded by Alexis Tam.
Defining Moments
1. Founding the CCAC framework (1999–2009)
As the first post-Handover Commissioner, Cheong's core task was to translate the pre-Handover anti-corruption and oversight functions into a CCAC fit for the Basic Law and the SAR's legal framework. Macao's CCAC differs in design from Hong Kong's ICAC in carrying both an anti-corruption mandate and an ombudsman role. Across ten years Cheong established the three-track working model of investigation, prevention/education, and administrative complaints, leaving an institutional base for his successors (Vasco Fong, Ho Chio Meng, André Cheong, and others).
2. The welfare-expansion years (2009–2014)
Cheong's five years at Social Affairs and Culture fell during the fiscal high point after Macao's gaming revenue overtook Las Vegas. Government welfare spending expanded quickly, and the social-and-culture sphere became a principal channel for redistributing the fiscal dividend, with parallel increases across health, education, social security, and culture and sport. As the responsible Secretary, Cheong was an operator of this "gaming dividend → welfare expansion" period, coordinating education subsidies, hospital-system construction, World Heritage management, and higher-education development. This profile compiles his portfolio scope from the public record only and does not adjudicate specific cases.
Public Character
Coverage of Cheong has long clustered around descriptors such as public-administration professional, steady, low-key. As the first post-Handover Commissioner Against Corruption, his founding work on the integrity framework is widely seen as the most institutionally significant phase of his career; at Social Affairs and Culture, his portfolio spanned education, health, culture, sport, welfare, and tourism — among the widest day-to-day contact surfaces of the SAR government.
Favourable assessments note his decade-long construction of the CCAC framework and the sustained welfare expansion during his Social Affairs and Culture tenure. Reserved or neutral takes point to the sheer breadth and coordination difficulty of the social-and-culture portfolio, with several long-term challenges (such as the long-range planning of health and education) spanning multiple secretaries. This profile compiles his public-service record from public sources only and does not adjudicate specific controversies of his time in office.
Key Achievements
- First Commissioner Against Corruption of the Macao SAR (20 December 1999 – 20 December 2009), responsible for founding the post-Handover CCAC framework
- Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture (20 December 2009 – 20 December 2014), overseeing education, health, culture, sport, social welfare, and tourism for five years
- Coordinated education subsidies, hospital-system construction, and social-security policy during the welfare-spending expansion of the Chui Sai On administration
- Oversaw continuing World Heritage management of the Historic Centre of Macao and higher-education development including the University of Macau's Hengqin campus
- Appointed before the Handover to the Selection Committee for the first SAR government, with long prior service in the municipal system and the public-administration association
Information compiled from gov.mo / the Government Information Bureau (gcs.gov.mo), the Chinese and English Wikipedia, Macao News, and Macau Business, among other publicly available sources. This profile is compiled from the public record. If anything is inaccurate or needs updating, please contact us — we aim to respond within 48 hours.
