Hong Kong's leader unveiled a new, reshuffled cabinet on Saturday, a team that will face tough challenges in the next five years from pollution to making good on the chief executive's promises on democracy.
Among the notable appointments are a new head of the civil service and finance chief, as well as a staunch pro-Beijing leftist who was once jailed in the 1960's.
Henry Tang will shift from being financial secretary to chief secretary - the city's number two post as head of the civil service. John Tsang, the former private secretary of the last British governor Chris Patten, will become financial secretary. Tsang is now director of the Chief Executive's Office.
"I have every confidence they'll deliver the best to Hong Kong," Chief Executive Donald Tsang, flanked by his 15 principal officials, told a press conference. The Tsangs are not related.
The chief executive said his new team was "energetic", "patriotic" and shared his "governing philosophy" to help deliver on pledges put forward as part of his campaign for re-election in March. "It will be a people-based government ... to feel the public pulse and to embrace the public sentiment," said Donald Tsang.
Among the biggest issues facing the government in the five-year term that starts on July 1 is political reform and the need to reconcile public calls for direct elections as soon as possible with Beijing's aversion to quick moves on that front.
"I will endeavour to deliver universal suffrage in the election of the chief executive and election of the legislature in the coming five years," Tsang told reporters. His reshuffled cabinet includes six newcomers. One symbolic and potentially controversial inclusion is Tsang Tak-sing, an overtly pro-Beijing loyalist, who becomes the secretary for home affairs - a key policy position bridging government to society in sensitive areas including education, religion and human rights.