Word: tung
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...enact needed institutional reforms, according to U.S. strategic experts. A multibillion-dollar arms purchase from the U.S., pushed by President Chen Shui-bian, has been held up for almost four years because of resistance by the opposition KMT and PFP parties, which claim that the weapons are overpriced. Wu Tung-yeh, a professor at National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations, believes the island has let its guard down. "Taiwan," he says, "will have neither will nor the ability to defend itself against China...
...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...
...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 fa?ade is maintained of a Hong Kong person...
...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...
...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...