- Li Qiang: Xi confidant becomes premier
- Netherlands restrict chip exports
- Tsai meeting with McCarthy draws closer
- Salary cut for finance officials
- Tech CEOs as delegates
- German politician calls for action against Tibet boarding schools
- Record heat in March
- China Perspective: runology
The National People’s Congress is drawing to a close – and with it the important appointments for the new government. State and party leader Xi Jinping will get his much-coveted third term as president. It is almost as certain that Li Qiang, who previously headed the CP in Shanghai, will become the new premier on Saturday. Unlike his departing predecessor Li Keqiang, the younger Li is a trusted associate of President Xi Jinping.
But Li is not only the functionary who was responsible for last spring’s harsh lockdown in Shanghai. Nor is he considered a mere yes-man: Li Qiang has repeatedly proven himself to be an efficient, pro-business doer over the course of his career, as Joern Petring analyzes. Now Xi only has to give him the necessary leeway. His predecessor Li Keqiang did not have it.
The US influence on the way China’s tech industry is treated also played a crucial role in a decision by the government in The Hague. The Netherlands places machines for the production of state-of-the-art microchips under export restrictions. Together with Japan, they are thus cutting off the Chinese semiconductor industry from technology that can be used to manufacture the most powerful processors.
Another slap in China’s face – and confirmation to all those there who believe in a US conspiracy against China’s rise. From the American point of view, however, the step was only logical, analyzes Finn Mayer-Kuckuk.
Christiane Kühl
Feature
Li Qiang: A premier Xi trusts in
Saturday will be the day: The National People’s Congress in Beijing will elect China’s new premier. And in all likelihood, his name will be Li Qiang. What he and the incumbent Li Keqiang have in common is that they are considered to be business-oriented. Just as Li Keqiang made efforts to open up the country and introduce reforms during his ten years in office, Li Qiang has done a lot to support the private sector, most recently as party leader in Shanghai and in previous positions.
The fact that the departing Premier has a Ph.D. in economics and that the new Li once studied agricultural mechanization does not matter much. Both have gained the necessary experience for the job over their long political careers. Career changers do not become premier in China.
And yet the new Li and the old Li (the similarity of their names is pure coincidence) tick very differently in one crucial respect, which could also have implications for China’s future economic policy: They belong to different political movements. Li Keqiang is a protégé of Hu Jintao, whose base of power is the Communist Party’s Youth League. Li Qiang, on the other hand, firmly belongs to President Xi Jinping’s faction. He served as Xi’s chief of staff while Xi was still in charge of the province of Zhejiang. Both know each other well. Li Qiang has been a loyal follower of Xi for years. And what is probably even more important: Xi trusts him.
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