Zhang Qingli was elected secretary of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region on Monday.
Zhang, 55, was elected to the post at the first plenary session
of the 7th CPC Tibet Regional Committee.
He was appointed secretary of the CPC Committee of the Tibet
Autonomous Region in May this year, replacing 52-year-old Yang
Chuantang, who was appointed vice-minister of the State Ethnic
Affairs Commission (at ministerial level) in June.
According to official records, Zhang, a native of Dongping, east
China's Shandong Province, was born in January 1951.
He was admitted into the CPC in February 1973.
Zhang worked in Dongping until January 1979 where he rose to be
deputy chief of Dongping's CPC county committee. He then moved to
Beijing to take up the position of department vice head of the
Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL).
In 1986, he left the CCYL Central Committee and returned to
Shandong to become vice mayor of Dongying City and deputy secretary
of the city's CPC committee.
Zhang was promoted several times in Shandong until August
1998.He then moved to Gansu Province, where he held a number of
important posts including head of the publicity department of the
provincial CPC committee and Party chief of Lanzhou, the provincial
capital.
Between October 1999-March 2005, Zhang held a series of key
positions in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, such as
commander of the paramilitary Xinjiang Production and Construction
Corps (XPCC), deputy secretary of the CPC committee of the XPCC,
deputy secretary of the CPC committee of the Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region, and vice-chairman of the People's Government of
Xinjiang.
He is a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee and a deputy of
the 10th National People's Congress.
(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2006)