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)