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Michael Kadoorie

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “business executive”. Today it says “hong kong billionaire businessman”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Hong Kong-British entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir”. It now reads “Hong Kong entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir”.

Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.

Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.

We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. ¹ tap a number or a side note to jump between them

The opening as it read in 2005

Michael Kadoorie) born 1941 in Hong Kong , is a business executive, one of the world's foremost tycoons and philanthropists.¹ The son of business tycoon Lord Kadoorie (Lawrence Kadoorie) (1899-1993) and his wife, Muriel Gubbay, Michael Kadoorie was educated at Institute Le Rosey in Switzerland before going on to university. His family’s roots in business in the Far East go back to his grandfather who first settled in Shanghai in 1880.² A Jewish immigrant from Bombay , India , and a descendant of Iraqi Jews originally from Baghdad , he made a fortune in Shanghai and Hong Kong real estate and utilities.³ Michael Kadoorie's father and uncle successfully expanded the family businesses into a sprawling empire of diversified corporations. Michael Kadoorie is the Chairman of CLP Research Institute and CLP Holdings Ltd. which his family founded in 1890 and in which they still hold a 35% stake. The utility company provides electricity to 75% of Hong Kong and has equity interests in power plants in India , mainland China , southeast Asia and Australia . He is also the Chairman of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, owners of the world-renowned Peninsula Hotel , Metrojet Limited, Heliservices (Hong Kong) Limited and Tai Ping Carpets Intl. He holds a number of directorships in other companies as well.⁴ He has been a member of the Council of the University of Hong Kong since 1993 and in 2000, the Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building opened at the university. In 2004, the University of Hong Kong awarded him an honorary LLD. A renowned philanthropist and trustee of the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation, Michael Kadoorie was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor by the government of France and a Commander of the Order of Léopold II of Belgium . A photography buff and a discerning collector of Chinese works of art, Kadoorie is also a helicopter pilot and a fan of exotic cars. He is the owner of a number of rare automobiles including a type 57 Bugatti , a 1932 Phantom II Thrupp & Maberly, a 1934 Hispano-Suiza J12 Van Vooren Cabriolet, a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 500K, a 1969 P400 S Miura Lamborghini and a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. In 1998, he spent two months recovering from serious injuries at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England after he crashed his vintage Ferrari into a ditch. On the Forbes 2004 List of billionaires, Michael Kadoorie is ranked 122nd in the world. He was given a knighthood, as a Knight Bachelor, in the Queen's Birthday Honours List on 11th June 2005. It is not yet known whether he will use his knighthood.⁵

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16366972.

The opening as it stood in 2010 11 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Sir Michael David Kadoorie, GBS (born 1941, Hong Kong ) is a business executive and philanthropist. In early 2007, he is the fourth wealthiest person in Hong Kong and Greater China Region , after Li Ka Shing , Lee Shau Kee and the Kwok brothers , with the wealth of his family estimated to be 5.3 billion US dollars according to Forbes' annual list of billionaires . The son of business tycoon Lawrence Kadoorie (1899-1993) and his wife, Muriel Gubbay, Michael Kadoorie was educated at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland . His family’s roots in business in the Far East go back to his grandfather, a descendant of Iraqi Jews originally from Baghdad , who first settled in Shanghai in 1880. After a spell in Bombay, India, his grandfather made a fortune in Shanghai, mostly lost in 1949, and later, in Hong Kong through finance, real estate and utilities. Headquartered in Hong Kong soon after 1949, Michael Kadoorie's father and uncle successfully expanded the family businesses into a diversified group, led by the company flagship CLP Holdings Ltd. Michael Kadoorie is the Chairman of CLP Holdings Ltd. which his family founded in 1890 and in which they still hold a 35% stake. The utility company provides electricity to 75% of Hong Kong as sole operator (licensed through a Scheme of Control) in Kowloon and the New Territories, and has equity interests in power plants in China , Southeast Asia , Australia and India . He is also the Chairman of the family's second largest listed group, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, owners and operators of the world-renowned Peninsula Hotel Group . Michael Kadoorie also controls and is a director of Metrojet Limited, Heliservices (Hong Kong) Limited and has initiated CLP Research Institute (a subsidiary of CLP Holdings which looks into renewable energy development). He holds a number of directorships in other non-Kadoorie companies.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 335630185.

Today

Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
	2005	2010	2015	2020	Oct '23	2025

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

business executive

Now

hong kong billionaire businessman

image & license · Wikimedia

1. Removed: “Michael Kadoorie) born 1941 in Hong Kong , is a business executive,…” In the article until 2005 (rev), gone by 2010 (rev).

2. Removed 2 sentences: “The son of business tycoon Lord Kadoorie (Lawrence Kadoorie) (1899-1993) and his…” In the article until 2010 (rev), gone by 2015 (rev).

3. Removed: “A Jewish immigrant from Bombay , India , and a descendant of…” In the article until 2005 (rev), gone by 2010 (rev).

4. Removed 5 sentences: “Michael Kadoorie's father and uncle successfully expanded the family businesses into a…” In the article until 2010 (rev), gone by 2015 (rev).

5. Removed 9 sentences: “He has been a member of the Council of the University of…” In the article until 2005 (rev), gone by 2010 (rev).

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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