Mr Li was born in 1928 in Chiu Chow, a coastal city in the southeastern part of China. Mr Li was forced to quit school when he was 12 and fled to Hong Kong with his family to avoid the perils of war. Shortly thereafter, his father suffered from tuberculosis and passed away in Hong Kong. Before he was 15, Mr Li had to shoulder the responsibility of providing for his family and found a job in a plastics trading company where he labored 16 hours a day. By 1950, his hard work, prudence and his pursuit of excellence had enabled him to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Mr Li led and developed his company into a leading real estate investment company that was listed in Hong Kong in 1972. Cheung Kong continued to expand by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited (renamed Power Assets Holdings Limited) in 1979 and 1985 respectively.

With roots in Hong Kong, the CK Group's businesses now span the globe, encompassing such diverse areas as ports and related services, retail, infrastructure, energy, telecommunications, property development and investment, hotel and serviced suite operation, property and project management, brewery and pub operation and life sciences. Mr Li is a strong believer in synergy—the power of combined efforts. This belief is reflected in his naming his company Cheung Kong after the Yangtze River that flows through China, a great river that aggregates countless streams and tributaries. The Times in the United Kingdom and Ernst & Young UK jointly named Mr Li as the Entrepreneur of the Millennium at the turn of the century.

The Li Ka Shing Foundation was established in 1980 with a focus on education, medical services and research initiatives. To underscore the importance of the foundation, Mr Li described his philanthropic effort in a landmark speech entitled “My Third Son” and has apportioned one-third of his assets into the Foundation in 2006 accordingly. To date, Mr Li has invested over HK$30 billion in projects covering education, medical services, charity and anti-poverty programmes, with about 80% of the projects in Mainland China and Hong Kong. In his speech, Mr Li called for a paradigm shift in Asia’s culture of giving, encouraging greater individual philanthropy towards social capital and sustainability to bring forth a more hopeful and promising future.

In 1981, Mr Li founded Shantou University (STU), the only privately funded public university in China with earmarked grants and contribution of HK$12 billion to date. STU is the cornerstone project of the foundation and a platform to instigate reforms in the higher education sector in China. To date, Shantou University has educated 170,000 students, including more than 60,000 medical school students.

In recognition of his philanthropic efforts and his contributions to society, Mr Li has received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Cambridge, the University of Calgary in Canada, Peking University, and the University of Hong Kong, among others. Mr Li, a Justice of the Peace, has also received the Grand Officer of the Order Vasco Nunez de Balboa from Panama, Commandeur de l'Ordre de Léopold from Belgium, Knight (Commander of the Order) of the British Empire, the Grand Bauhinia Medal of Hong Kong, and the Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur from the French Government.

Mr Li has two sons. The elder son, Victor, now serves as  Chairman and Managing Director of CK Asset Holdings Limited, Chairman and Group Co-Managing Director of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, and Chairman of CK Infrastructure Holdings Limited and CK Life Sciences Int'l., (Holdings) Inc. Mr Li's younger son, Richard, is Chairman of PCCW, one of Asia's leading information technology and telecommunications companies.

22 October 2021