Donald Tsang
The Honourable Donald Tsang Yam Kuen GBM JP KBE (, born
October 7,
1944) has been the
Chief Executive of
Hong Kong since 2005. On
June 16,
2005, he was declared winner as the only qualified candidate. He was appointed by the
Central People's Government as the Chief Executive on
June 21,
2005. Tsang has been a civil servant for over 30 years.
Tsang was the second
Chief Secretary for Administration of
Hong Kong SAR. As Chief Secretary he served as acting
Chief Executive until
May 25,
2005, following
Tung Chee Hwa's resignation on
March 12,
2005. He resigned as Chief Secretary on the afternoon of
May 25, after the Chief Executive Election (Amendment) (Term of Office of the Chief Executive) Bill was passed at the
Legislative Council, and went on leave. Financial Secretary
Henry Tang took up as acting Chief Executive. His resignation was accepted by the
Central People's Government of the
People's Republic of China on
June 2,
2005.
Tsang is married and has two sons. His younger brother,
Tsang Yam Pui, was the
Police Commissioner of Hong Kong until
December 2003, and had been a career police officer who worked his way through the ranks from inspector. Quite famous for his devoutness, Tsang is a
Roman Catholic and goes to the Church every morning, though his political viewpoints are criticised by
Joseph Cardinal Zen, the
bishop of
the local Catholic Diocese, at times.
Tsang was born in Hong Kong in
October 7,
1944. His father was a police officer and Donald Tsang is the eldest of his five sons and one daughter. After completing his secondary education at
Wah Yan College, Hong Kong in
1964, he worked briefly as a salesman at
Pfizer Corporation before joining the civil service.
He joined the civil service in January
1967, and he has held positions in many different government departments, ranging from finance and trade to policies relating to the transfer of Hong Kong's sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the
People's Republic of China.
From
1981 to
1982 Tsang studied in the
United States, where he completed a
Master of Public Administration at the
Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University. He has also received honorary doctorates from the
Chinese University of Hong Kong, the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the
University of Hong Kong.
He was attached to the
Asian Development Bank in
Manila in
1977 for a year and worked on water supply and railway development projects in the
Philippines and
Bangladesh.
As Deputy Secretary of the General Duties Branch between
1985 and
1989, he was responsible for the implementation of the
Sino-British Joint Declaration and the promotion of the "
British Nationality Selection Scheme". He served as Director-General of Trade between
1991 and
1993, and was responsible for all facets of trade negotiation and administration affecting Hong Kong. In May 1993, he was promoted to Secretary for the Treasury, where he was responsible for the overall allocation of resources, the taxation system and the cost effectiveness of the Hong Kong government.
In September
1995, he was appointed Financial Secretary, becoming the first
Chinese person to hold the position. He was created a
Knight Commander in the
Order of the British Empire in 1997 for his long-time service to Hong Kong, being knighted by
Prince Charles. Tsang was also awarded the
Grand Bauhinia Medal by the Hong Kong government in June
2002. During his term as Hong Kong's Financial Secretary, Hong Kong's public spending went through the roof. Public expenditure to GDP rose to as high as 23%, amongst the highest in developed economies. He also approved a raise in civil servants' salary at the beginning of the Asian economic crisis. The salary raise was finally reversed, aligning civil servants' salary to private sector levels.
During his six-year tenure, he steered Hong Kong through the
Asian financial crisis that swept across the region in
1997 and
1998. He worked with
Joseph Yam, chief executive of the
Hong Kong Monetary Authority and waged war on the speculators attacking the
Hong Kong currency peg.
On
May 1,
2001, former Chief Secretary
Anson Chan resigned her post, citing personal reasons. Tung then appointed Tsang to become deputy leader and invited a civil service outsider,
Antony Leung, to take up the post of Financial Secretary.
As Chief Secretary, Tsang ranked second to the then
Chief Executive of Hong Kong Tung Chee Hwa, advising him on matters of policy and deputising for him during his absence. He was also a member of the Tung's inner cabinet, the
Executive Council, which is also the highest policy-making body in Hong Kong. He assumed the post of acting Chief Executive when Tung's resignation was approved by the
Central People's Government of the
People's Republic of China on
March 12,
2005. Polls showed that Tsang enjoyed the highest approval in Tung's administration.
Main article: Tung Chee Hwa's resignation''According to Article 53 of the Basic Law, if the Chief executive resigns, the Chief Secretary will assume the duty as acting Chief Executive for a maximum of six months. At 17:30 (HKT) on March 10, 2005 in Hong Kong, Tung Chee Hwa announced his resignation due to "health problems". The resignation was endorsed by the Central People's Government on March 12, which also confirmed Tsang as Acting Chief Executive. Tsang then assumed power as head of the Hong Kong government. It was always clear that Beijing had already endorsed Tsang as the new Chief Executive and that he would be elected unopposed by the 800 members of the Election Committee on June 16 2005. However, a recent "interpretation" of the Basic Law by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has made it clear that Tsang will only serve out the remaining two years of Tung Chee Hwa's term, rather than the full five years originally mooted. In 2007, he will doubtless seek such a full five year term, but whether or not he is successful depends very much on his performance before then and whether he retains the favour of the central authorities.
Tsang formally styled himself Sir Donald Tsang KBE, but he has not used the title "Sir" since abandoning his British citizenship after the handover.
On May 25, 2005, Tsang resigned as Chief Secretary for Administration because of his intention to run for the post of Chief Executive.(Press Release by the HKSAR Government) Mr Michael Suen. the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, became Acting Chief Secretary for Administration as soon as Tsang's resignation was accepted by the Central People's Government.
Tsang's resignation as Chief Secretary was accepted by the
Central People's Government of the
People's Republic of China on
June 2,
2005. He immediately established an Election Office, with
LegCo member and chairman of the
Bank of East Asia,
David Li Kwok-po, as his election campaign chairman. Tsang claimed that his agenda could be summed up as one of "Resolute, pragmatic action". He also mentioned that his philosophy of governance was the reason he had decided to run in the election. He said, "I would like to share with you my vision for Hong Kong, and how I will put my philosophy into practice after I am elected."
Tsang instantly became the frontrunner in the race to succeed Tung, due to his long-time experience and high approval ratings. However, some commentators feared that his close association with the past British colonial administration would lead Beijing to distrust him. Tsang, however, won the support of a wide spectrum of society ranging from pro-democracy groups to business tycoons and this appeared to outweigh the misgivings of certain members of the communist hierarchy and their supporters within Hong Kong.
Accordingly, Tsang gained the support of the
Central People's Government and his campaign ran without a hitch. On June 15, he handed in his nomination form which bore the signatures of 674 of the approximately 800 members of
Election Committee. Later in the evening, the
Returning Officer, Madam Justice Carlye Chu Fun Ling vetted the nomination form and determined that his nomination as a candidate in the election was valid.
(Press Release by the HKSAR Government) As there were fewer than the required 100 members of the election committee remaining to nominate other candidates, Tsang was declared the only valid candidate in the election and became the new Chief Executive. [
1] This procedure (some would say, farce) constitutes a classic example of the old adage that the Central Government of China has absolutely no objection to elections as long as they know the results in advance.
During the Chief Executive election campaign, Donald Tsang received about HK$27.33 million sponsorship for the campaign, about 20% of which came from the businessmen from the property sector, while
Tung Chee Hwa received only one third of this amount for the second Chief Executive Election. Although Donald Tsang stated publicly that each sponsor could not sponsor in excess of hundred-thousand Hong Kong dollars, some of the businessmen tried to sponsor him in different names, for example,
Stanley Ho from Shun Tak Group and
Lee Shau Kee from Henderson Land Development each sponsored HK$1 million under their family members' names. In the Chief Executive election campaign, Donald Tsang used only HK$4.12 million of the sponsorship, which was HK$2 million less than the amount used by
Tung Chee Hwa in his second Chief Executive Election. The remaining HK$23.21 million dollars would be donated to 14 charitable organizations.
On
June 21,
2005, he was officially appointed Chief Executive of the HKSAR by the State Council of the Central People's Government to complete the remainder of Tung's term, which ends on
June 30,
2007. Tsang is awaiting renovations to the
Government House, as his residence.
After 80% of fish from the mainland China was found to have
Malachite green, forcing many fish stalls to close, fishermen and businessmen criticized the Tsang administration for acting too slowly. Subsequently, the approval rating of Tsang and his administration fell in opinion polls.
On
August 30,
2005, Tsang announced that the Cantonese Central Government invited all 60 members from the
Legislative Council to visit
Guangdong between
September 25 to
September 26,
2005. This is the first chance for most of the pro-democrats such as
Martin Lee to visit the mainland
China since
1989.
On
November 30, he televised appeal for support on the electoral reform package, however still there were thousands (63,000 as reported by the police, 81,000 - 98,000 by HKU-POP research team, at least 250,000 by the organisers) who demonstrated against the reform package four days later. It seems that Tsang will not change the "anti-democracy" points in the reform package.
On
December 21, the Legislative vetoed his reform proposal as the government failed to get support from more than two third councillors. Some lawyers in Beijing said that if the problem can't be solved, Donald Tsang has the power to dissolve the
Legco under the
Basic Law.
* Tsang has been dubbed
Bow-Tie Tsang (ç…²å‘"曾) because of his habit of wearing a
bow tie.
* Tsang has a fondness of keeping
koi. A pool has been built in his
new residence, into which he moved in January 2006.
*
Politics of Hong Kong*
Official Biography about Tsang*
Tsang's announcement on resignation (in Traditional Chinese)
*
Government statement on Tsang's resignation*
Henry Tang's remark on Tsang's resignation*
BBC News: Profile: Donald Tsangwidth=20% align=center|Preceded by:
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| Succeeded by:
Andrew Li |
zh-yue:曾è"權>
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