Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) left his position early as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) consolidates control over the world’s second-largest economy.
Li was not included in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) new 200-member Central Committee, a requirement for joining the more powerful Central Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP. That marks an end to Li’s decade as China’s No. 2 official, and a long career that at one point saw him in the running to lead the nation — a role he lost to Xi.
While Li, 67, announced earlier this year that he would step down as premier in March next year, in line with the position’s two-term limit, he would have been young enough for a fourth stint on the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.
Photo: AFP
Xi, 69, tore up age norms governing retirement at the close of the party congress meeting in Beijing, breaking the age cap of 68 en route to a precedent-breaking third term in office.
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Yang (汪洋), 67, considered a contender for premier, also exited early, clearing a path for Xi loyalists more compliant with his directives to take the role.
Li, a trained economist, saw his push for more liberal policies in some sectors stymied as Xi increased the CCP’s role over the government in policymaking.
Li’s reputation as a relatively liberal official took hold in the 1980s, when he translated English works on constitutional law by a British judge. He later studied for a doctorate in economics under one of China’s leading advocates for market reform.
Li carved out a policy platform based on cutting red-tape and taxes on business. He also called for city growth to be linked with the provision of employment and public services.
However, his role diminished once Xi moved key economic policy decisions to a series of party committees led by himself and his trusted economic aide, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴).
“I think Li Keqiang very early on recognized the realities of his position and adapted to it without getting on the wrong side of Xi,” Nanyang Technological University assistant professor Dylan Loh said. “This year he’s been a bit more open with talking about stuff. That could be because he’d decided to retire.”
China’s “zero COVID” lockdown policy fueled speculation of a policy divergence between Xi and Li.
With Li’s departure, Xi could further diminish the role of the premiership. His ally and CCP Committee Secretary of Shanghai Li Qiang (李強) is a leading candidate for the post.
Meanwhile the congress concluded yesterday and ended a week of largely rubber-stamp meetings among 2,300 CCP delegates who were selected by the party to approve a reshuffle of its leadership.
However in an unexpected move at such a heavily choreographed event, former Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) was led out of the closing ceremony. He seemed reluctant to leave the front row where he was sitting next to Xi.
After an exchange of about a minute, in which Hu spoke briefly with Xi and Li, he was led out of the hall.
A seated Xi was filmed holding papers down on the desk as Hu tried to grab them. Hu patted Li Keqiang’s shoulder as he left.
The new Central Committee of about 200 senior CCP officials was elected yesterday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, without disclosing a list of members.
Security was also a focus of the congress, in which Xi lauded Hong Kong’s transition from “chaos to governance” and vowed to “never commit to abandoning the use of force” to seize Taiwan.
The Congress was set to further cement Xi’s position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong (毛澤東), with analysts predicting that he was virtually certain to be reappointed for a third term in power.
Xi’s work report “is a carefully scripted drama through which the power of the CCP, its leader, and its ideas are meant to be elevated and amplified,” wrote David Bandurski, editor of the University of Hong Kong’s China Media Project.
However, some key questions remain unresolved, including whether Xi would appoint a potential successor to the Politburo Standing Committee and whether a more succinct form of his signature political philosophy would be enshrined in the charter of the 96-million-strong party.
The latter would make Xi Jinping Thought “the latest, 21st-century rendition of Marxism [and] the state ideology of China,” said Steve Tsang (曾銳生), director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.
“Xi’s power will be akin to that of the dictator of China, and there will be next to no scope for anyone to advise him to attempt course correction,” Tsang said. “This will increase the risk of policy mistakes being made, as everything will depend on Xi getting it right.”
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