After Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China, was elected president of China for the third time on Friday (10th), the National People’s Congress decided on Saturday that Xi Jinping’s confidant Li Qiang will succeed Li Keqiang as Premier of the State Council. The era is over.
According to Xinhua News Agency, deputies to the National People’s Congress voted Saturday morning to appoint Li Qiang as Premier of the State Council. Li Qiang received 2,936 votes, with 3 against and 8 abstentions. After the vote counting results came out, there was warm applause at the scene. The deputies to the National People’s Congress also decided that Zhang Youxia and He Weidong would be the vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission.
After the closing of the National People’s Congress on Monday, Li Qiang is scheduled to meet with Chinese and foreign journalists at 10:30 on the same day in the Golden Hall on the third floor of the Great Hall of the People.
With Li Keqiang stepping down as prime minister, the era of China’s technocratic governance has also come to an end, leaving only the “Xi Jiaban” at the top of the CCP.
After the deputies to the National People’s Congress voted on the personnel case of Premier Li Qiang on Saturday morning, at 3:00 p.m., candidates for the vice premier of the State Council, ministers of various ministries, and president of the People’s Bank of China will be considered, and the vote is scheduled for Sunday.
Li Qiang was the secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. During his tenure, Shanghai experienced a chaotic two-month blockade, which greatly disrupted the supply chain of the electronics industry. Despite this, he was promoted to the “second in command” of the CCP at the “Twentieth National Congress” of the CCP last year.
Li Qiang was born in Ruian, Zhejiang in 1959. After the Chinese government reinstated university admissions examinations in 1977, he entered the Agricultural Machinery Department of Zhejiang Agricultural University Ningbo Branch the following year. He joined the Communist Party in 1983 and served as Governor of Zhejiang Province and Party Secretary of Jiangsu Province.
During Xi Jinping’s tenure as provincial party secretary in Zhejiang Province, Li Qiang served as secretary general of the provincial party committee and directly assisted Xi Jinping. Therefore, Li Qiang is regarded by the outside world as one of the soul figures of the “Zhijiang New Army”.
Li Qiang is the first premier since the Mao era who has not served as a vice-premier in the State Council. In contrast, Wang Yang, Hu Chunhua and other candidates to succeed Li Keqiang have all served as vice premiers.
When Li Qiang was promoted last year, Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, said that it was Li Qiang’s personal friendship with Xi Jinping that allowed him to beat more qualified candidates and get promotion opportunities.
Although Li Qiang had imposed a lockdown order during his tenure as Shanghai party secretary, some analysts said he had also shown a pragmatic and pro-business side. During his tenure, Tesla built the first “Gigafactory” outside the United States in Shanghai. The Shanghai factory is a Tesla-owned factory, and Tesla is the first automaker to build a factory in China.
Under Li Qiang, “China’s business environment should become friendlier for at least the next two years,” Citi analysts said in a research note, and he is likely to support private companies and foreign investors.
