Xi Confidante Li Qiang Elected China’s New Prime Minister Over 2,000 Unidentified Dead After Turkey Earthquake

China’s People’s Congress has elected Li Qiang as China’s new prime minister. As expected, the nearly 3,000 hand-picked delegates voted overwhelmingly for the 63-year-old at their current annual conference in the Great Hall of the People on Saturday. Li Qiang succeeds Li Keqiang (67), who is retiring after ten years.

The office is particularly important to the economy. Because while the president in China is responsible for the big picture, concrete economic planning is traditionally more the responsibility of the prime minister. But this division has suffered greatly under Xi Jinping. He has left Li Keqiang much less room for maneuver and – as in other areas – has concentrated power in his own hands.

Although the former prime minister belonged to a different political camp, Li Qiang is considered a close confidant of the president, who appointed him a senior member of the Politburo last October. He first worked directly under Xi Jinping in 2007, when he was still party leader of the important province of Zhejiang.

Li Qiang can look back on a long career, which he mainly spent on the prosperous east coast of China. As party secretary in Shanghai, he defended the interests of business while promoting foreign investment. During his tenure, Tesla built a large factory in the city. “He doesn’t talk so much about ideology, but a little more about how to do things,” says Nis Grünberg of the China Institute Merics in Berlin.

Under the leadership of Li Qiang, Shanghai initially took a less restrictive approach to the virus than many other regions in China during the corona pandemic. However, as the metropolis failed to contain an outbreak in the spring of 2022, the city was eventually placed in a strict lockdown for two months. This has apparently benefited Li Qiang politically.

Xi Jinping had already been confirmed by the People’s Congress on Friday for an unusual third term as president. At the October party congress, the 69-year-old had already flouted previous age and term restrictions and enshrined a firm leadership role in the party bylaws. With his sole rule, he joins state founder and revolutionary Mao Tsetung, who, however, had brought chaos to the country

The week-long annual conference, which runs through Monday, is the scene of the biggest government reshuffle in a decade, with Xi Jinping’s closest confidants mostly promoted. (saw/sda/dpa)