Li Qiang, considered one of the trusted men closest to Xi Jinping, was appointed, Saturday, March 11, new Prime Minister of China, the day after the renewal, for a third term, of the Chinese President.
Xi Jinping, 69, won a new five-year term as China’s president on Friday after a unanimous vote in parliament, the culmination of a rise that has seen him become China’s most powerful leader. country for generations. Since the Parliament was, in practice, subservient to the ruling Communist Party (CCP), the outcome of the ballot was in no doubt.
On Saturday, in another vote by deputies gathered at the Palace of the People’s Assembly in Beijing, Li Qiang, the only candidate for the post of prime minister, obtained 2,936 votes in favor, three against and eight abstentions. This 63-year-old man, former CCP official in Shanghai, whose image had been somewhat tarnished in the spring during the chaotic confinement of his city, succeeds Li Keqiang, in office since 2013.
The Chinese Premier heads the State Council. Its function is traditionally associated with the day-to-day management of the country and the conduct of macroeconomic policy. Li Qiang, who had been promoted to the rank of number two in the CCP in October 2022, has no experience at the central government level, unlike almost all former prime ministers.
Complicity with Xi
However, he had a long career in local government and held important leadership positions in the wealthy coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Li Qiang was Xi Jinping’s chief of staff when the latter was head of the CCP in Zhejiang between 2004 and 2007. His rapid promotions since then reflect the high level of confidence placed in him by the Chinese number one.
On Saturday, at the People’s Assembly Palace in Beijing, Xi Jinping and Li Qiang appeared accomplices at the time of the vote, exchanging pleasantries with a smile. Li Qiang takes office at a time when the world’s second-largest economy is facing a sharp slowdown, weakened by nearly three years of an inflexible so-called “zero Covid” policy. For 2023, the government has set itself a gross domestic product growth target of“about 5%”one of the lowest in decades.
The outgoing Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, an economist by training, had seen his reform projects hampered by the growing authority of Xi Jinping. On Saturday, the deputies also appointed Zhang Youxia and He Weidong as vice-presidents of the Central Military Commission (of which Xi Jinping is chairman), Zhang Jun inheriting the post of president of the Supreme Court. Liu Jinguo becomes, for his part, the head of the National Supervisory Commission, the body that deals with the fight against corruption.