Li Qiang, a longtime ally of China’s top leader and the man who oversaw last year’s bruising two-month Covid lockdown of Shanghai, was formally appointed the country’s premier on Saturday. He will face the challenge of trying to revive the economy, which is languishing from three years of Covid restrictions.
As premier, Mr. Li is now China’s No. 2 leader and the top bureaucrat leading the country’s cabinet and wielding broad authority over economic policy. The position has weakened under Xi Jinping, the top leader, who was widely seen to have sidelined the departing premier, Li Keqiang. But some analysts say that Li Qiang may play a larger — though not necessarily more influential — role than his predecessor.
The government has said it expects to expand the economy by “around 5 percent” this year, a modest goal that most likely points to the difficulty of resolving the housing market slump, slowing exports and rising debt. Youth unemployment is high. Chinese companies face the threat of crippling economic sanctions by the United States and its allies.
Li Qiang, the former Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, was elevated last fall to be the No. 2 official in the Chinese Communist Party, probably a product of his perceived loyalty to Mr. Xi. He carried out the lockdown of Shanghai in the name of Mr. Xi’s “zero Covid” policy of eradicating the virus, despite the enormous economic and social cost it exacted on the city, partly as a result of mismanagement that led to food shortages.
Mr. Li’s experience leading economically important regions — in addition to Shanghai, he also held top posts in affluent Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces — has fueled some hopes that he will promote business-friendly policies. But he lacks experience in Beijing, which could make him more reliant on Mr. Xi’s continued support, and less likely to raise policies at odds with the top leader’s wishes.
Mr. Li’s new position was confirmed on Saturday at the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress. On Monday, at the end of the congress, he will make his public debut as premier at a news conference with vetted questions.
The congress will elevate new leaders for the first time in five years — many of them Mr. Xi’s loyalists.
Here’s a look at the lineup:
The President
Mr. Xi was confirmed to a norm-breaking third term as state president on Friday.
The announcement was no surprise: He oversaw the abolition of presidential term limits in 2018, and in October he secured a third term as head of the Chinese Communist Party, the position from which his real authority derives. The vote by the National People’s Congress further formalized Mr. Xi’s position as China’s most dominant leader in decades.
As he starts his third term as president, Mr. Xi has signaled that he will focus on strengthening security and seeking self-sufficiency in strategic technologies to push back harder against what he perceives as an effort by the United States to block China’s rise.
“Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development,” Mr. Xi said in a speech last Monday.
Executive Vice Premier
The executive vice premier is the highest-ranked of China’s vice premiers, the officials directly under Mr. Xi and his No. 2. This post will now be held by Ding Xuexiang, who for the past few years has served as a secretary and chief of staff to Mr. Xi.
In this role, Mr. Ding is also likely to be responsible for domestic economic policy. The outgoing executive vice premier, Han Zheng, was a former Communist Party secretary of Shanghai credited with guiding that city’s transformation into a cosmopolitan financial capital. Mr. Ding, by contrast, has never led a province, working largely as a behind-the-scenes technocrat.
But like others recently promoted, Mr. Ding has longstanding ties with Mr. Xi. He is widely believed to be the office director for China’s National Security Commission, a secretive body that has grown more influential as Mr. Xi has emphasized the need for vigilance against foreign and domestic threats. He has also frequently traveled with Mr. Xi, both domestically and overseas.
Mr. Han, the current executive vice premier, was named China’s vice president, a largely ceremonial role.
Head of the Legislature
Zhao Leji, named No. 3 in the party hierarchy last fall, was approved on Friday as the head of the National People’s Congress.
The legislature nominally has the power to make laws and amend the Constitution, though decisions are in reality made by top party officials. Mr. Zhao has kept a relatively low profile, but his responsibilities in recent years have been weighty: He has led the party’s discipline inspection commission, in charge of implementing Mr. Xi’s campaign against official corruption and disloyalty.
That campaign has been key to Mr. Xi’s consolidation of power and purging of rivals. Before taking on the disciplinary role in 2017, Mr. Zhao was a top official in charge of party personnel issues, giving him deep experience in the party’s internal affairs.
Head of Political Advisory Body
At the same time as the annual legislative meeting, another group, which acts as a political advisory group to the government, also meets in Beijing. This group, called the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, will now be led by Wang Huning, the No. 4 Communist Party official.
In this role, Mr. Wang will oversee about 2,000 representatives who ostensibly offer political and social policy suggestions; in reality, the conference works more as a soft power force for the party, mobilizing resources and nonparty members across Chinese society to back the party’s agenda.
Mr. Wang is known as the party’s chief ideologist: He has served three consecutive top leaders in creating propaganda and writing speeches and policies. He helped shape Mr. Xi’s motto of the “Chinese Dream” — a vision of national rejuvenation, shepherded by Mr. Xi — and his political rise signals the continuation of the party’s hard-line, anti-Western policies.
Economic Czar
Working closely with Mr. Li, the new premier, on reviving China’s economy will be He Lifeng, another trusted former aide to Mr. Xi.
Mr. He, who was approved on Sunday to become a vice premier overseeing economic and industrial policy, is the current head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s economic policy planning committee. In that role, he has overseen the drafting of China’s five-year plans and large investment projects both at home and overseas.
Compared with the outgoing economic czar, Liu He — a Harvard-educated economist who also led trade negotiations with Washington — Mr. He has had little overseas exposure. He worked for 25 years in southern Fujian Province, including on and off with Mr. Xi when he was rising through the ranks there, and then became deputy Communist Party secretary in the megacity of Tianjin.
His close ties to Mr. Xi suggest that he will be crucial to carrying out the leader’s vision of a security-oriented, state-led society, where economic growth comes second to ideology.
Chris Buckley, Keith Bradsher, Claire Fu, Joy Dong and Chang Che contributed reporting.
