Li Qiang is the trusted aide of Xi Jinping. (Reuters File Photo)
With Xi Jinping tightening his grip on power in China, his close aide Li Qiang is set to be the next premier. His name is doing the rounds since Li Keqiang resigned in October 2022.
Here are five points in Li Qiang:
- According to Brookings Institute in Washington, DC, Li was born in July 1959 in Rui'an County, in Zhejiang province. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1983.
- He received his undergraduate education in agricultural mechanization at the Zhejiang Institute of Agriculture's Ningbo campus in Ningbo City, said Brookings. Before entering politics, Mr Li worked at an electromechanical irrigation and drainage station in Mayu District and then at the No. 3 Tools Factory in Rui'an County.
- Li Qiang is one of Xi Jinping's most trusted proteges. From 2004 to 2007, he worked directly under Xi as his chief of staff in the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee.
- He was appointed as the second-ranking Politburo Standing Committee member in October last year, paving the way for him to become China's next premier.
- The Guardian said Mr Li's reputation took a beating over his handling of Shanghai's two-month-long Covid lockdown, which sparked public anger, rare protests and battered the city's manufacturing and export-heavy economy. But his appointment shows Xi places loyalty and trustworthiness above all else, said the outlet.
