In Beijing, the capital of China, the “two sessions” have just ended, the annual legislative appointment in which some of the most important decisions in Chinese political life are formally presented. However, this year, in addition to the common legislative work of the two sessions, the delegates also had the task of renewing the appointments of the Chinese government. After ten years in office, party general secretary Xi Jinping obtained a third term as president of the republic for the first time, while the second incumbent within the party Li Qiang was elected as the new prime minister of the State Council, the executive body in charge of governing China: it is the position commonly referred to as the “Chinese premier”, which traditionally supports the president and deals with the management of the economy.
But since Xi Jinping took power, the prime minister’s office has been largely stripped of its powers, and it is still unclear what role Li Qiang, who is a close ally of Xi, will play within the Chinese system.
The two sessions
By “two sessions” we mean the plenary sessions of the two most important legislative bodies of the People’s Republic of China, which are normally convened once a year during the month of March. These two bodies are the National People’s Congress, the parliament of the country dominated by members of the Communist Party, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a body that supports the parliament and in which other Chinese political formations find more space ( i.e. political parties dependent on the Communist Party which have the role of declining some expressions of Chinese society without ever questioning the communist supremacy), as well as representatives of organizations and civil society.
With regard to the appointments, there were no major surprises compared to what was revealed last October at the twentieth congress of the Communist Party of China, where in fact the positions were decided and then in recent days were confirmed by the vote of the delegates of the Assembly. Xi has been reconfirmed at the helm of the People’s Republic of China while his ally Li Qiang will be in charge of conducting government activities. Xi was confirmed with the unanimous vote of the Assembly, while Li received 2,936 votes in favor, 3 against, and 8 abstentions.
Li Qiang
The ascension to new prime minister of a politician like Li Qiang it is unusual for Chinese politics. Until last October, Li was a leading figure in local politics: he had served as governor and then party secretary in two highly industrialized coastal provinces of China, before becoming party secretary in Shanghai in 2017. But these positions have kept Li for most of his career away from the capital, where politics is decided at the national level. In fact, Li has never held government positions in Beijing nor the position of deputy prime minister, a role that until now in China had been an essential step in the political career of anyone who had become prime minister in the last 35 years.
If Li Qiang was able to skip the usual steps to become prime minister, it is because Xi Jinping wanted to have someone loyal to him in this important position.
During his administrative experience, Li has built an image of a politician attentive to technological issues and friendly to entrepreneurs. In 2019 Shanghai inaugurated the STAR Market, which is a stock exchange that allows technology companies to more easily raise the necessary capital for their development. It is therefore no coincidence that during the first press conference held on Monday the new prime minister has tried to reassure the private sector.
However, the disastrous management of the Shanghai lockdown weighs on his account, which during the spring of 2022 forced millions of residents of the city to remain closed at home for almost two months, and caused large and unprecedented protests in the city, which then extended to the rest of the country.
Loyalty to Xi Jinping
The question now is what is the autonomy of maneuver of the new prime minister, which owes its promotion almost exclusively to Xi Jinping. Lacking a personal power base, Li in fact belongs to the so-called “New Army of Zhijiang”, that is what is defined in journalistic jargon as the faction within the Communist Party in which the people most loyal to Xi Jinping militate. Li Qiang, in fact, owes his career entirely to Xi Jinping, who chose him as prime minister precisely because of his loyalty.
According to many analysts, Li’s room for maneuver will be very limited. As Beatrice Gallelli, a researcher at Ca’ Foscari University and at the Istituto Affari Internacional (IAI) study centre, says, the next prime minister will probably be a low-profile figure compared to the president. «With Li Qiang we will witness a continuation of the communication practice centered on Xi Jinping as seen up to now», says Gallelli. “If his predecessor in some communiqués hinted that he had some visions not aligned with Xi Jinping, this will not be the case for Li Qiang”.
However, internal Chinese sources, through revelations to foreign media, are trying to make him a figure of a certain authority. A few days ago Reuters he wrote that the abandonment of the “zero Covid” strategy would in fact be attributable to Li Qiang, who allegedly put pressure to speed up the country’s reopening after the draconian virus containment measures.
However, there remains a fundamental image problem for the Chinese leadership. With the appointment of one of his close collaborators to the detriment of other candidates considered more competent, Xi is exposed to criticism from those who believe that under his authority the Chinese model has lost the meritocratic principle that had determined its economic success. “It’s clear that [la nomina di] Li Qiang poses a challenge», says Gallelli, since China’s political system «has been widely celebrated by the Chinese authorities as a system based on meritocracy and capable of creating more stability and prosperity than an electoral democracy».