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Confirming what was common knowledge in Hong Kong, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa announced last week that he had resigned. While Tung said he was leaving because the job was wearing him down, China's leaders have clearly telegraphed in recent months their unhappiness with Tung's inability to run Hong Kong to their satisfaction. How will his successor, 60-year-old Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, fare? That's one of the many questions being asked about Hong Kong's new leader. Here are the critical ones, and the answers to them:
• Who is Donald Tsang?
Unlike Tung, the Shanghai-born heir to a Hong Kong shipping empire, Tsang does not come from a privileged background. The eldest son of a policeman, Tsang joined the civil service—Hong Kong's iron rice bowl—soon after high school. His diligence and loyalty pleased his British masters, who sent him to Harvard to get a master's in public administration and granted him a knighthood. Tsang acted as a crucial bridge during Hong Kong's handover to China in 1997, and fought off currency speculators during the Asian financial crisis, postcolonial Hong Kong's first big challenge.
• What's he like?
He's personable and sociable, and loves to banter, even with opposition legislators. Tsang is a devout Roman Catholic—he was educated at a Jesuit school—and worships daily at St. Joseph's Church near his office. Favorite item of clothing: colorful bow ties.
• How do China's leaders feel about him?
They like the fact that he's a career civil servant. "After Tung, Beijing prefers a man with experience in government," says Ma Ngok, a political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Beijing also prefers someone who won't rock the boat. Tsang, a lifelong bureaucrat trained to follow rather than give orders, fits the bill. Indeed, during a press conference last week, he repeatedly stressed how important stability was to Hong Kong. Moreover, with Tsang at the helm, at least the façade is maintained of a Hong Kong person running Hong Kong—which is a cornerstone of "one country, two systems"—even if China's leaders actually call the shots. But they don't know the new Chief Executive as well as they would like. "He has to prove himself to Beijing," says James Tien, head of the pro-business Liberal Party.
• Who's for Tsang in Hong Kong?
The 170,000-strong civil service supports him. The general public like him, too. A poll taken last month by the University of Hong Kong ranks Tsang as one of the territory's most popular leaders, with an approval rating of over 60%.
• Who's against him?
The business lobby wanted to see one of their own become Chief Executive. Hong Kong's leftists mistrust Tsang as a colonial Anglophile (the knighthood, the British boarding schools his two sons attend). And the democrats find Tsang too conservative. In its eagerness to replace Tung, Beijing may have underestimated the contentiousness of Hong Kong party politics. If Tsang can't keep the territory's powerful factions under control, he could find it difficult to get anything done.
• What are the challenges facing Tsang?
The biggest is the growing demand in Hong Kong for greater democracy, which often manifests itself in the form of mass street protests. The public will also carefully watch what Tsang does regarding the city's West Kowloon Cultural District, a huge real estate project that has drawn accusations of collusion between the government and Big Business. Then there's the state of the harbor, Hong Kong's most precious natural resource; air pollution; worsening traffic; conservation; the widening wealth gap—in short, everything you'd expect from the educated and cosmopolitan society Hong Kong has become.
• What happens next?
For now, Tsang is only the acting Chief Executive. Hong Kong's constitution requires that a new leader be chosen by the Election Committee, which currently consists of 800 community stalwarts, within six months of the post being vacated. Last week Tsang announced that the selection would take place on July 10. If he runs, he is unlikely to face any serious opposition, not least because the committee is heavily pro-China. "Beijing has already anointed him," says opposition legislator Emily Lau. Tsang would then serve out Tung's current term until 2007, when the committee meets again. At that time, however, other candidates may emerge to take on Tsang. "Beijing will regard the next two years as a test," says Anthony Cheung, a professor of public administration at Hong Kong's City University. "They want to see if he has the skills to pacify the public." If not, Tsang may go Tung's way.
- Ilya Garger | Hong Kong
- What's in store for Hong Kong's new leader