Chau was born in 1943 in Hong Kong. He was graduated from the St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong in 1961 and the University of Hong Kong in 1967 and joined the Hong Kong government on the same year. During his early career, Chau was involved in the formulation of Hong Kong's foreign trade policies, establishing and negotiating the bilateral textiles arrangements between Hong Kong and importing countries under the Multi-Fibre Arrangement, at the time when Hong Kong textiles industry was booming. In 1979, Chau was appointed as Hong Kong's permanent representative to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and served until 1984. After he returned to Hong Kong in 1984, he continued to serve in many positions, including Regional Secretary for Hong Kong and Kowloon in the City and New Territories Administration and Secretary for Health and Welfare from 1988 to 1989. In that capacity, he was also an official member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. In 1990, his position dropped as the Director-General of Trade, where he responded with "a step back after a year a boundless as the sea and sky". After a year, he was re-promoted to Secretary for Trade and Industry from 1991 and 1995 and Secretary for Broadcasting, Culture and Sport from November 1995 to March 1998. In 1990, he famously commented on Singapore by noting that Singapore had "advantages" over Hong Kong's in implementing unpopular policies to tackle the economic downturn because the People's Action Party has nearly complete control over parliament, the media, trade unions and the people. He further added: "Of course we are different from Singapore. The opposition parties in Singapore do not raise opposition. If they do raise opposition, the might be arrested...our legislative council has 60 opposition members." The Straits Times replied with a bitter editorial that denounced Chau's "misinformed and inaccurate comments." He was appointed again as Secretary for Trade and Industry in March 1998 in which the position was renamed Secretary for Commerce and Industry in July 2000. He retired from the government in 2002 after he was not invited to be principal official under the new Principal Officials Accountability System of the Tung Chee-hwa administration. Upon his retirement, he was awarded Gold Bauhinia Star.
