There was no suspense: Xi Jinping was reappointed president by the Chinese Parliament, unanimously with 2,952 votes! This is his third term. Parliament will now appoint the men who will govern with it, and first of all the Prime Minister.
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There too, there is hardly any suspense: the Prime Minister will certainly be Li Qiang, 63, promised to this function since he reached the rank of number two in the Chinese Communist Party last fall. Li Qiang, unknown a few months ago because he had little experience at the national level, drags a hell of a pan: the calamitous management of the zero Covid policy in Shanghai, with the complete shutdown of the great metropolis, for more two months a year ago. Li Qiang was then the leader of the Communist Party in Shanghai and this policy had triggered a wind of protest in the city. But Li Qiang has an unrivaled asset : he is a faithful among the faithful of President Xi Jinping, whose rise he accompanied in the province of Zhejiang near Shanghai. A graduate in agriculture, Li Qiang has built a rather pro-business reputation. For example, he favored the establishment of an American Tesla factory in Shanghai. That said, he will mostly do what Xi Jinping decides. He will be more docile than his predecessor, Li Keqiang, whom President Xi viewed as a rival.
Li Qiang an obedient prime minister
The role of the Prime Minister in China is primarily to conduct economic policy and Li Qiang has his work cut out for him because the Chinese economy is a little shaky. Growth painfully reached 3% last year, the lowest level for 50 years. Youth unemployment is on the rise, real estate is down, local communities are in debt. And above all there is the big problem in the medium term: demography. The country is aging rapidly, China is losing inhabitants, pension reform looks very difficult there. His pedigree in Shanghai suggests that Li Qiang will defend a dynamic economic policy. With an effort on new technologies, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, quantum. We also saw several engineers appear in the Political Bureau of the Communist Party last fall. But Li Qiang will therefore above all have to take into account President Xi’s injunctions: in particular on the protection of state-owned companies and on the fight against the very top of the magnates of the leisure and entertainment industry.
The central criterion of loyalty to President Xi
Apart from this Prime Minister, who are the men who will count? It’s quite simple: they are all followers of Xi Jinping. We can cite the probable vice prime minister, Deng Xuexiang, former secretary and chief of staff of Xi. Zhao Leji, who will lead the Congress and will be responsible for enforcing political discipline in the ranks. He Lifeng’s chief economic adviser, also a longtime loyalist of President Xi. Cai Qi, in charge of national security issues, still a liegeman of XI Jinping since the days of the current president’s ascension in the Zhijiang region. Some also call this whole team “the Zhijiang army”. The criterion is therefore obedience to the president. No discordant voice. And that suggests that Xi Jinping has every intention of going beyond a third term. The cult of personality will further increase in China.
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