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Donald Tsang Quotes

Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, GBM, KBE is a former Hong Kong civil servant and was the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2012.

Tsang joined the colonial civil service as an Executive Officer in 1967, occupying various positions in local administration, finance and trade before he was appointed Financial Secretary of Hong Kong in 1995, becoming the first ethnic Chinese to hold the position under British administration. He continued to serve in the Hong Kong SAR government after 1997 and gained his reputation internationally for his intervention in Hong Kong's stock market in defending the Hong Kong dollar's peg to the US dollar during the 1997 financial crisis.

Tsang became the Chief Secretary for Administration in 2001 and ran for the Chief Executive in 2005 after incumbent Tung Chee-hwa resigned. He served the remaining term of Tung and was re-elected in 2007. He served a full five-year term until he stepped down in 2012. In his seven years of term, he proposed two constitutional reform proposals in 2005 and 2010 and saw the second ones passed after he reached a compromise with the pro-democracy legislators, making it the first and only political reform proposals to be passed in the SAR history. He carried out a five-year policy blueprint and ten large-scale infrastructure projects during his term. His popularity began to decline after the introduction of the Political Appointments System which was marked by controversies and scandals.

In the last months of his term, Tsang was embroiled by various corruption allegations. He was subsequently charged by the Independent Commission Against Corruption and was found guilty of one count of misconduct in public office in February 2017 and was sentenced to a 20-month imprisonment, becoming the highest officeholder in Hong Kong history to be convicted and imprisoned. His name was later cleared when the Court of Final Appeal unanimously quashed his conviction and sentence in June 2019, on the ground that the trial judge had misdirected the jury. Wikipedia  

✵ 7. October 1944
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Donald Tsang: 5   quotes 0   likes

Famous Donald Tsang Quotes

“I should focus on other important issues like people's livelihoods and the economy.”

Donald Tsang

As quoted in "Hong Kong leader abandons reforms" at BBC News (12 January 2006) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4607100.stm

“All of the members of my new team have displayed in their work a strong sense of pragmatism that I promote. … While the backgrounds of principal officials are diverse, they all share a common commitment to our country, our territory and our people and agree with my governing philosophy.”

Donald Tsang

As quoted in "Donald Tsang unveils new HKSAR gov't lineup" at Xinhua News (23 June 2007) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/23/content_6281710.htm

“People can go to the extreme like what we saw during the Cultural Revolution. For instance, in China, when people take everything into their own hands, then you cannot govern the place. … [It] was the people taking power into their own hands. Now that is what you mean by democracy if you take it to the full swing.”

Donald Tsang

As quoted in "HK's Tsang apologises for gaffe" at BBC News (13 October 2007) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7042941.stm
Variant transcription or translation:
If you go to the extreme you have the cultural revolution for instance in China. Then people take everything into their hands, then you cannot govern the place. … It was people taking power into their own hands. This is what we mean by democracy.
As quoted in "Hong Kong leader apologises for democracy gaffe" at AFP (14 October 2007) http://web.archive.org/web/20070609092458/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_ytPeUlA7mXw3eMQ6WHSo_emsLw

“The life expectancy in Hong Kong is among the highest in the world … you can come to only one conclusion: we have the most environmentally friendly place for people, for executives, for Hong Kong people to live”

Donald Tsang

Statement during a Business for Clear Air conference, as quoted in "Tsang hit for 'naive' comments" by Mimi Lau in The Standard (28 November 2006) http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=32856&sid=11078442&con_type=1&d_str=20061128&sear_year=2006

“In order to reach universal suffrage we need to build trust.”

Donald Tsang

As quoted in Hong Kong Lawmakers Reject Tsang's Electoral Plan (Update4) at Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aBfFhhK_Md.I&refer=asia

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