(TibetanReview.net, Jan08’22) – China on Jan 7 “elected” Mr Yan Jinhai as the chairman of the so-called people’s government of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) while another report Jan 8 by its official Xinhua news agency said Mr Zhang Yongze, vice chairman of TAR government, had been put under disciplinary and supervisory investigation by the country’s top anti-graft body for suspected severe violations of disciplines and laws.
Yan’s “election” was a formality and took place on Jan 7 during the ongoing session of the TAR regional People’s Congress. China had made him the acting-chairman on Oct 8, 2021. The 59-year-old ethnic Tibetan who previously served as the Communist Party Secretary of Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, belongs to Qinghai Province. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chinese language and literature from Qinghai University for Nationalities.
After graduating in 1982, he taught at Huangnan Normal School for Nationalities and joined the party the next year. He served on various posts in the province before rising to become vice governor of Qinghai in Jan 2013. In May 2017 he became a member of the standing committee of the CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee, the province’s top authority.
In Jul 2020, he was transferred to TAR as a deputy party secretary, while concurrently serving as party secretary of Lhasa since Jan 18, 2021.
Meanwhile vice chairman Zhang Yongze has been placed under investigation on Jan 8 by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission. There is no information on what exact severe violations he is accused of.
Zhang, 52, has been a Vice Chairman of TAR since May 2017. Born in Qiubei County, Yunnan Province, he has spent his entire career in TAR, and was previously the mayor and party secretary of Shannan (Tibetan: Lhokha) Prefecture.
He joined the party in Mar 1997 and began as deputy director of Environmental Protection Bureau of TAR in 1998.
