Li Keqiang appointed as vice-premier

China's National People's Congress (NPC) approved Li Keqiang (李克強) as vice-premier yesterday, state TV said, making the protege of President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) the most likely candidate for premier in five years' time.

Li was among four vice-premiers approved by the nearly 3,000 delegates to the NPC in a vote coming a day before the close of the 14-day session.

There were four candidates for the four positions.

"It looks like he will be confirmed to succeed [Premier] Wen Jiabao [溫家寶] in five years' time," veteran China-watcher Willy Lam of the US-based Jamestown Foundation said.

The other three vice-premiers included former Beijing mayor Wang Qishan (王岐山) and Zhang Dejiang (張德江), the former top party official in Guangdong Province. Hui Liangyu (回良玉), a member of the Muslim Hui minority, was renamed as vice-premier.

Li, 52, rose through the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ranks succeeding Hu as head of the Communist Youth League, before polishing his political skills as head of Henan Province and Liaoning Province.

Yesterday's move was likely to put him at the head the government when Wen's term ends in 2013.

The appointments had been expected since a top CCP meeting in October renamed Hu and Wen to their top party posts for a second and last five-year term.

In the same meeting, Li was given an elite party position, along with Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), confirming speculation that the two were political heirs-in-waiting and expected to spearhead the next generation of leaders.

Five state councilors, or officials at the vice-premier level, were also named yesterday, including Liu Yangdong (劉延東), Liang Guanglie (梁光烈), Meng Jianzhu (孟建柱), Ma Kai (馬凱) and Dai Bingguo (戴秉國).

Other appointments approved by the nearly 3,000 members of the National People's Congress included top officials overseeing foreign trade and overseas relations, as well as the governor of the People's Bank of China.

This year's session was intended to focus on fighting inflation and preparing for the August Beijing Olympics, but that effort was diluted by major anti-Chinese protests among Tibetans that have spread from the regional capital Lhasa to other mainly Tibetan areas in western China.

Neither Hu -- the party secretary of Tibet during the last major protests in 1989 -- or Wen have commented publicly on the protests, in which dozens of people have reportedly been killed.

Wen is scheduled to hold a news conference today at the end of the two-week meeting of the National People's Congress at Beijing's colossal Great Hall of the People.

An experienced administrator, Wen serves chiefly as China's top economic official, leading efforts to cool increases in food prices that jumped by 23.3 percent last month, driving the overall inflation rate to a nearly 12-year high of 8.7 percent.

The CCP worries about a possible political backlash in a society where poor families spend up to half their incomes on food.

Inflation has in the past fueled protest movements, including the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square that were crushed by People's Liberation Army troops.