Xiao Jie was elected Monday afternoon the first mayor of the newly established Sansha City in the South China Sea along with the head of the city's legislative body.

Xiao, 51, head of the Hainan Provincial Agriculture Department, was elected mayor of the city in the first session of the first Sansha Municipal People's Congress held on Yongxing Island, the government seat of Sansha.

Fu Zhuang, 56, deputy director of Hainan Provincial Civil Air Defence Office, was elected director of the standing committee of Sansha Municipal People's Congress, the city's legislative body.

The legislative conference also elected three deputy mayors, head of the city's intermediate people's court and procuratorate. It also elected another five members of the standing committee of the Sansha Municipal People's Congress.

"It's a great honor to be the first mayor of Sansha, and it's also a brand new mission, challenge and test for me," said Xiao.

The first Sansha Municipal Government will be devoted to administrative management, economic development, people's livelihoods and environment protection in the coming five years, Xiao said.

The deputies and members of the standing committee of the municipal People's Congress should make positive contributions to the management, development and protection of the islands as well as the sea waters surrounding Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha, said Fu.

Forty-five deputies to the municipal people's congress attended the first session of the first Sansha Municipal People's Congress and cast their votes.

The deputies, divided into groups from the Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha islands, were elected Saturday by 1,100 residents from the islands.

The State Council, or China's cabinet, in June approved the establishment of Sansha, a prefectural-level city in south China's Hainan Province to administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and the surrounding waters in the South China Sea.

China's central military authority has approved the formation and deployment of a military garrison in Sansha.

Sources with the People's Liberation Army Guangzhou Military Command said Friday that the Central Military Commission had authorized it to form a garrison command in the city.

Yongxing Island is part of the Xisha Islands.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2012)