Xi Jinping’s trusted advisor Li Qiang has been chosen China’s next premier. He will be ostensibly responsible for the world’s second-largest economy, which is now seeing some of its worst prospects in years. The National People’s Congress, China’s ceremonial parliament, met in Beijing on Saturday morning, when Li was nominated by Xi and appointed to the role with no dissenting voices. He takes over for Li Keqiang, who has stepped down as premier.
Nearly all of the more than 2,900 delegates who cast ballots chose the 63-year-old. The confirmation of Li’s post was a formality, coming a day after Xi, 69, achieved an unrivalled third five-year term as president, making him the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong and giving him the potential to reign for life. As the party ruler of China’s financial capital, Li is most well-known for imposing a strict “zero-COVID” lockdown on the city last spring. Doing so demonstrated his dedication to Xi in the face of opposition from locals upset about a shortage of resources including food, healthcare, and education. It was during Xi’s time as governor of Zhejiang, Li’s home province in the country’s southeast, that the two first met. Zhejiang is now widely recognized as a technological and industrial powerhouse. Even as Xi maintained tougher political controls and anti-COVID regulations, Li had gained a reputation in Zhejiang and Shanghai as being favorable to private enterprise before the epidemic hit, and he also had greater authority over e-commerce and other Internet companies.
Li will be responsible for recovering China’s slowing economy as premier while the country continues to recover from the pandemic. Weak export demand throughout the world, ongoing US tariff rises, a declining workforce, and an ageing population are all challenges he’ll have to overcome. The Chinese economy expanded by only 3% in 2018, and on the first day of parliament, Beijing set a modest growth target of approximately 5% for 2023, the lowest aim in over three decades. According to Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics, according to reporters, Li’s key job this year would be to accomplish that aim without causing significant inflation or piling on debt.
For the sake of COVID containment, the leadership has already tolerated two years of extraordinarily sluggish economic development. They won’t tolerate another attempt at confinement now that the last one has failed,” Beddor added. On Monday, at the completion of the parliamentary session, the premier traditionally answers questions from the media, and Li will use this opportunity to make his debut on the world stage. In China’s greatest power upheaval in a decade, Xi is installing a slate of supporters, including Li, in crucial posts.
