Li Qiang is the new Chinese premier: the National People's Congress, the legislative branch of Parliament, elected him with 2,936 votes in favour, 3 against and eight abstentions.
President Xi Jinping, his sponsor, signed the nomination decree which, amid the applause of the classroom, was followed by the handover between outgoing Prime Minister Li Keqiang and incoming Li Qiang.
Li, among President Xi Jinping's most trusted allies, is the former head of the Communist Party of Shanghai who had overseen the draconian lockdown of April and May 2022 to counter the wave of Covid-19 outbreaks: the disastrous management of the crisis , with widespread protests and clashes, had questioned the possibility of his ascent to the top of the CCP and the state.
ANSA Agency
Xi re-elected President of the People's Republic of China - World
President Xi Jinping has secured an unprecedented third term at the helm of the People's Republic of China, completing the transition into his second decade in power.
(HANDLE)
The close ties with Xi, according to observers, have allowed him to emerge unscathed from the affair.
Since then, Li and his colleagues have been opening doors to the business elite, offering reassurances of government support for the private sector, in efforts to persuade those who had moved overseas during the pandemic to return to China.
Major party officials generally wait for their government posts to be made official and formalized, but Li, immediately after being named number 2 of the CCP at the XX National Congress in October, allegedly assumed the leadership of a national anti-Covid task force, carrying out - according to media reconstructions - also a role of persuasion with
Xi for the abandonment of the 'zero tolerance' policy for the coronavirus.
Li, considered a pragmatist with good management skills with the business world, has shown - according to some observers - to be more than a simple Xi loyalist that many expected, playing leading roles not only in the fight against Covid but also on the front of the growth
of the economy.