Padma Choling (CNSPHOTO)	Qiangba Puncog (WEI YAO)

Padma Choling was elected chairman of the government of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region on January 15. His predecessor, Qiangba Puncog, was elected head of the Tibet Regional People's Congress, the local legislative body, on the same day, replacing Legqog who, at 66, has reached the mandatory retirement age.

Padma Choling, 59, is a native of Dengqen County in Tibet. After serving 17 years in the army from 1969 to 1986, he became an official in Tibet's regional government and was elected its vice chairman in 2003.

"In contrast to his predecessor, the slender, bespectacled and soft-spoken Qiangba Puncog, Padma Choling is firm and strong-willed," a Xinhua News Agency report quoted an anonymous source familiar with the two officials as saying.

Qiangba Puncog, born in 1947, began to serve as chairman of Tibet's regional government in 2003 and was reelected in 2008. A mechanics major graduating from Chongqing University in 1975, he was among the first Tibetans to receive a college education.