Who is Li Qiang, China’s new premier and Xi Jinping loyalist?

It’s official. Li Qiang is China’s new premier. He has replaced Li Keqiang, who became premier in 2013 but was increasingly sidelined by President Xi Jinping . Li Qiang, a close confidant of Xi, will be nominally in charge of the world’s second-largest economy now facing some of its worst prospects in years. He was nominated by the president and appointed to the position at Saturday morning’s session of the National People’s Congress, China’s ceremonial parliament. That came a day after Xi, 69, secured a norms-breaking third five-year term as state leader, setting him up to possibly rule for life. Let’s take a closer look at Li Qiang: Also read: Are lockdowns coming back to China? Who is he? The 63-year-old Li Qiang is a native of Zhejiang province. Li Qiang is a crony of Xi’s from his days in provincial government decades ago. As per CNA, Li Qiang served as Xi’s de facto chief of staff in Zhejiang province. Li Qiang was in the position, a role for the most trusted confidants, from 2004 to 2007 when Xi was party chief of Zhejiang.  As per BBC, Li and Xi during their time together would impress their superiors with their practice of working long hours into the night. Li’s promotion to governor of the economic powerhouse province in 2013, the year Xi became president, meant he had been put on the path by Xi to be groomed for bigger roles. In 2015, Li accompanied Xi on a visit to the United States to meet then-President Barack Obama. In Seattle with Xi, Li gave a speech calling for more cooperation between Zhejiang and U.S. firms. When Xi removed several officials in Jiangsu province as part of a corruption crackdown and needed someone trustworthy to fill the political vacuum, he sent in Li in 2016, elevating him to provincial party chief. One of Xi’s most trusted acolytes, Li Qiang was previously the chief of the Shanghai party – a position Xi himself held. [caption id=“attachment_12244542” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Chinese president Xi Jinping applauds during the opening session of China’s National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. AP[/caption] Pro-business and pragmatic Li Qiang is known as business-friendly and pragmatic. As per the Wall Street Journal, Li in December during his first public speech representing the State Council, said top party officials are working to create a favourable business environment. He pushed greater economic integration of the Yangtze River Delta region as well as overseeing an expansion of the financial hub’s free trade zone that now houses US automaker Tesla’s China factory as well as a slew of semiconductor and advanced manufacturing firms. According to the BBC, Li Qiang played a key role in bringing Tesla to Shanghai – the company’s first factory outside the United States.

Tesla, unlike other car companies, was also not made to partner with a Chinese firm.

“He was a strong advocate for further opening the market to foreign investors and urged local bureaucracy to create a business-friendly environment when he was at the helm of Shanghai,” Wang Feng, the chairman of Shanghai-based financial services group Ye Lang Capital told SCMP. “He is likely to give businesses, from home or abroad, greater freedom in conducting cross-border trades while requiring government officials to further cut red tape to serve the companies.” One Shanghai-based entrepreneur said he was surprised when Li responded to an unsolicited letter seeking help. “He attended to our case and cleared the unnecessary regulatory obstacles for us, even though we were just a small private company,” said the business owner, declining to be named given the sensitivity of discussing politics in China . However, during his tenure as the Shanghai party head, Li Qiang came under fire on social media for the heavy-handed two-month COVID lockdown of the city’s 25 million residents last year. During Shanghai’s lockdown, Li repeatedly appeared in state media visiting residential compounds and hospitals. Making his rounds, he reiterated the COVID party line: “We must resolutely implement the spirit of the important instructions by Party Secretary Xi Jinping and steadfastly persist in the dynamic-zero approach”. Despite the COVID-19 blemish on his record, Li was last year elevated to the party’s second-highest-ranking official – perhaps a harbinger of things to come. In November, Li abruptly drove a decision to activate the reopening plans sooner than intended, in an effort to contain the economic toll of the zero-COVID campaign and protests that had rattled the leadership, said the four people and another person with knowledge of the matter said. The upshot was a chaotic reopening in December, when China suddenly ended lockdowns, mass testing and other restrictions. Li would also be the first premier since 1976 not to be promoted from vice-premier, Neil Thomas, a senior analyst for China and Northeast Asia at the Eurasia Group, said on Twitter. “Tradition is that somebody who becomes premier must be vice-premier before - this is totally against party convention,” said Willy Lam, senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a US think tank, who described Li’s performance in Shanghai as mediocre. Also read: In show of political goodwill, Taiwan to allow more flights from mainland China Why was Li Keqiang removed? Li Keqiang was increasingly sidelined as Xi accumulated ever-greater powers and elevated the military and security services in aid of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Li Keqiang was also seemingly aligned with China’s former president and party leader Hu Jintao. Hu, one might recall, was last year in a high-profile move removed from the Party Congress stage on Xi’s orders. [caption id=“attachment_12246652” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Chinese premier Li Keqiang delivers his state of the nation address during the opening session of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. AP[/caption] “Xi is not the first among equals, but rather is way above equal,” said Cheng Li, an expert on the Chinese leadership at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC. Ultimately, Li was a “team player” who put party unity foremost, he said. Meanwhile, Li Keqiang’s authority was being gradually shrunk, beginning with a reorganisation of offices in 2018. While some may have wished Li Keqiang had been more “influential or decisive,” the ground was crumbling under his feet as Xi shifted more of the powers of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, to party institutions, Cheng Li said. That shift to expanded party control is expected to continue at the current congress meeting on an even greater scale. At the same time, Xi appeared to favour trusted long-time brothers-in-arms such as economic adviser Liu He and head of the legislature Li Zhanshu, over Li Keqiang, leaving him with little visibility or influence. Li Keqiang’s lack of visibility sometimes made it difficult to remember he was technically ranked No. 2 in party. Li “was a premier largely kept out of the limelight by order of the boss,” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the London University School of Oriental and African Studies and a long-time observer of Chinese politics. In an era where personal loyalty trumps all, the fact that Li wasn’t seen purely as a Xi loyalist may end up being “the main reason why he will be remembered fondly,” Tsang said. “Li Keqiang has been associated with a more economics-focused take on governance, which contrasts strongly with the ideological tone that Xi has brought to politics,” said Rana Mitter of Oxford University. “Li Keqiang may be the last premier of his type, at least for a while,” Mitter said. What do experts say? Experts say Li Qiang and Xi Jinping are likely to work closely together. “His main strengths are his long work as a close adviser to Xi Jinping,” Andrew Collier, a China analyst with Global Source Partners, told SCMP. “I think the trust and the confidence between President Xi Jinping and Li Qiang will be very important in making sure that the relations between the Central Committee of the Politburo Standing Committee and the State Council will be seamless,” Victor Gao, chair professor of Soochow University told CNA “The coming 10 years will decide whether and how fast the overall size of the Chinese economy (will grow, and if it) will be the largest economy in the world.” “He has the room to do something great, but this all must be done under Xi’s overriding thoughts or within his tolerance,” an independent Chinese economist speaking anonymously told SCMP.

China’s politics could also see some turbulent times.

Carl Minzner, an expert on Chinese law and governance at New York’s Fordham University and the Council on Foreign Relation said Xi’s authoritarian tendencies risk a return to Mao-era practices where elite politics become “yet more byzantine, vicious, and unstable,” Minzner said. Li Keqiang’s departure “marks the end of an era in which expertise and performance, rather than political loyalty to Xi himself, was the primary career criterion for ambitious officials seeking to rise up to higher office,” he said. “All of these development speak to one thing: The Communist Party will govern everything, including economic and financial work,” Shen Meng, a director of Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co told Bloomberg. “Policymakers are placing the finance industry at the heart of the economy as a lubricant for its smooth development, and if the economy goes sour, the sector is mainly to blame.” With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.