China: Li Qiang, Xi's Loyalist Who Handled Shanghai Covid Lockdown, Next In Line To Be Premier

Li Qiang who handled the Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai will be the second most powerful figure in China after Xi Jinping.

Li Qiang oversaw the grinding two-month-long Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai which drew criticism from the residents.

Source : AFP

New Delhi: Li Qiang has been selected as China's next premier as newly re-appointed President Xi Jinping unveiled his new governing body on Sunday full of loyalists. Li Qiang oversaw the grinding two-month-long Covid-19 lockdown this year in Shangai and much to people's surprise he has been elevated to the No. 2 position after the president himself in the seven-man Standing Committee. 

Li Qiang will take over the economic management role, once the current premier Li Keqiang — a more reform-minded leader —  steps down in March next year. 

"Honestly, I did not have him on my list," said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, who had expected the reform-minded Hu Chunhua or Wang Yang to be the next premier, news agency Reuters reported. However, both Hu and Yang have been left out of the 24-member Politburo. 

Li is the first premier since 1976 elevated to the premier's post directly without first becoming vice premier.

"Tradition is that somebody who becomes premier must be vice-premier before - this is totally against party convention," said Willy Lam, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, the U.S. think tank, as quoted by Reuters. 

Due to his handling of the Shanghai lockdown, he became a target of social media outrage that made past censors. His decisions disrupted the city's economy and were criticised by 25 million residents, according to the report. 

Willy Lam also said that Li hasn't shown any market-oriented reforms.

Reuters reported a Chinese fund manager as saying that the market's feeling towards the new body has been negative, Reuters reported.  "Hardly anyone in the line-up has a profound understanding of the economy," he said. "Li is already seen as being better than the rest."

Li is a native of Zhejiang province and has been Xi's trusted confidant as he was the chief of staff from 2004 to 2007 when Xi was the party chief in the province. In 2013, when Xi became president, Li was promoted to governor of the economic powerhouse province, which meant he was being groomed by the President for bigger roles. 

Three years later, Li was promoted as the Communist Party's secretary of Jiangsu Province, an affluent hub of industrial activity, as per the New York Times.

The newly-chosen premier was also known for pushing 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 and a slew of semiconductor and advanced manufacturing firms, according to Reuters.

(With Agency Inputs)