Donald Tsang

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Donald Tsang Yam Kuen GBM JP KBE (Chinese: 曾蔭權, born 1944) is currently the Chief Executive of Hong Kong and former career civil servant. He joined the Chief Executive byelection 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 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 has been dubbed Bow-Tie Tsang (煲呔曾) because of his habit of wearing a bow tie.

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. He is a devout Roman Catholic.

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Early life

Tsang was born in Hong Kong in October, 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.

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's degree in Public Administration from 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.

Born October 7, 1944
Family Spouse: Salina Pow Siu Mei, with two sons, Simon and Thomas
Education 1964 Completing matriculation in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong
Working experience 1965-1967 Working as a salesman at Pfizer
1967 Executive officer II
1970 Administrative officer, Islands District Office
1974 Finance Branch
1977 Senior administrative officer, attached to Asian Development Bank
1978 Civil Service Branch
1981 Sent by the government to study an MPA at Harvard, completed with 9As
1982 District Officer, Sha Tin
1984 Deputy Director-General of Trade
1985 Deputy Secretary for General Duties
1991 Director-General of Trade and Chief Trade Negotiator
1993 Secretary for the Treasury
1995 Financial Secretary
1997 Received KBE
2001 Chief Secretary for Administration
2002 Received GBM
2005 Chief Executive 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, the first ethnic Chinese 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 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.

Serving as acting chief executive

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 though, like many other prominent local Chinese honoured by the Colonial government, he has not used his title since the handover. Some see this as an effort to distance himself from the former British colonial authorities, since such ties are unhelpful when currying favour with Beijing which has the ultimate authority over Hong Kong.

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) The Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen became Acting Chief Secretary for Administration as soon as Tsang's resignation was accepted by the Central People's Government.

Chief Executive Election Campaign

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 addage 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 27.33 million dollars 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 in the second Chief Executive Election. As Donald Tsang said publicly, each person can only sponsor 100 thousand dollars at most, 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 1 million with their family members' names. In the Chief Executive election campaign, Donald Tsang used only 4.12 million dollar of the sponsorship, which was 2 million dollars less than the amount used by Tung Chee Hwa in his second Chief Executive Election. The remaining 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.


(Press Release by the HKSAR Government)

As Chief Executive

After 90% of fish from the mainland China was found to have Malachite green, many fish stalls closed, fishermen and businessmen had criticized the Tsang government for acting too slow. This caused the supporting rate of him and his administration to fell down 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.

See also

External link


Preceded by:
Yeung Kai Yin
Secretary for the Treasury of Hong Kong
1993-1995
Succeeded by:
Kwong Ki Chi
Preceded by:
Sir Hamish Macleod
Financial Secretary of Hong Kong
1995-2001
Succeeded by:
Antony Leung
Preceded by:
Anson Chan
Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong
2001-2005
Succeeded by:
Michael Suen (acting)
Preceded by:
Tung Chee Hwa
Chief Executive of Hong Kong
12 March - 2 June 2005 (acting)
21 June 2005 -
Succeeded by:
Henry Tang (acting)
Preceded by:
Henry Tang (acting)
Succeeded by:
current incumbent
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