-
Published: 11 March 2023
At the Saturday morning session of the National People's Congress, China's ceremonial parliament, Li Qiang, was appointed prime minister of China, Li was nominated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, and appointed to this post a day after Jinping received a third five-year term as head of state, making him rule for life.
Edited by| Hugh Gey
Asia section - CJ journalist
BEIJING- 11 march 2023
Li is best known for having enforced a brutal “zero-COVID” lockdown on Shanghai last spring as party boss of the Chinese financial hub, proving his loyalty to Xi in the face of complaints from residents over their lack of access to food, medical care, and basic services.
Li, 63, came to know Xi during the future president’s term as head of Li’s native Zhejiang, a relatively wealthy southeastern province now known as a technology and manufacturing powerhouse.
Prior to the pandemic, Li built up a reputation in Shanghai and Zhejiang before that as friendly to private industry, even as Xi enforced tighter political controls and anti-COVID curbs, as well as more control over e-commerce and other tech companies.
As premier, Li will be charged with reviving a sluggish economy still emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and confronted with weak global demand for exports, lingering U.S. tariff hikes, a shrinking workforce, and an aging population.
He takes on the job as the authority of the premier and the State Council, China’s Cabinet, has been steadily eroding as Xi shifts more powers to bodies directly under ruling Communist Pa
As with Xi’s appointment on Friday, there was no indication that members of the NPC had any option other than to endorse Li and other officials picked by the Communist Party to fill other posts.
Unlike Xi, who received the body’s full endorsement, Li’s tally included three opposed and eight abstentions.
Xi was renamed head of the commission on Friday, an appointment that has been automatic for the party leader for three decades. The premier has no direct authority over the armed forces, who take their orders explicitly from the party, and plays only a marginal role in foreign relations and domestic security.
Xi’s new term and the appointment of loyalists to top posts underscore his near-total monopoly on Chinese political power, eliminating any potential opposition to his hyper-nationalistic agenda of building China into the top political, military, and economic rival to the U.S. and the chief authoritarian challenge to the Washington-led democratic world order.
