Having overseen Shanghai's stringent two-month COVID-19 lockdown this year as leader of the China Trade Hub Party this year is on track to become China's next prime minister after President Xi Jinping unveiled a new governing body full of loyalists. Li, a close ally of the newly elected Chinese leader, was promoted to the number two position on the seven-member Standing Committee on Sunday, putting him on track to take on the role of economic management.
Incumbent Premier Li Keqiang, a reformer, will resign in March after a maximum of two terms. "To be honest, I didn't have it on my list," said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, who had hoped for the reform. he thought either Hu Chunhua or Wang Yang would be elected the next prime minister. Both were expelled from the new 24-strong Politburo.
"Well, it seems like they feel safe doing it their way and it remains to be seen if it works," he said. a lockdown that severely impacted Shanghai's economy and drew the wrath of many of its 25 million residents. Li would also be the first prime minister since 1976 not to be promoted from deputy prime minister, said Neil Thomas, a senior China and Northeast Asia analyst. at Eurasia Group, at
Twitter. “The tradition is that if you become prime minister, you first have to be deputy prime minister; this is totally against the convention,” said Willy Lam, senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a US think tank, who described Li's performance in Shanghai as lackluster. "We haven't seen any market-oriented reforms from Li Qiang," Lam said.
A Chinese fund manager, who declined to be named, said overall market sentiment towards the new leadership was negative. "Hardly anyone in the lineup has a deep understanding of economics," he said. "Li is already seen as better than the rest. STEP As the top official in China's trade center and most populous city, Li's position as Shanghai party leader has traditionally been a stepping stone to a top-two role in China's power structure, even for Xi
Jinping himself.
While numerous local-level officials have seen their careers derailed by coronavirus outbreaks under their supervision under China's strict zero-COVID policy, they did not share Li's stature or history with Xi. Originally from Zhejiang Province, Li served as Xi's chief of staff from 2004 to 2007, when Xi was Zhejiang's party chief, a role for the most trusted confidants. Li's rise to governor of the prosperous province in 2013, the year Xi became president, meant Xi had gotten him on track.
to prepare for larger 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 greater cooperation between Zhejiang and US companies.
When Xi fired several officials
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