27. Nov 2005
New TAR party secretary
(Xinhua; Reuters) The Chinese leadership has appointed Zhang Qingli as the acting party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Mr Zhang is presently one of the vice chairmen of the largely-Muslim Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. He is seen by many as a political ally of President Hu Jintao and the appointment as part of President Hu’s strategy to move allies to key positions. As many allies of Hu Jintao, Zhang was a member of the China Youth League from 1979 to 1986 when he served as section chief and later vice minister with a responsibility for young workers and farmers