Xi Jinping bets on competence of Li Qiang as China new Premier

telegraph: The former Communist Party leader of Shanghai known for a brutal Covid lockdown there, Li Qiang, was officially designated China's new Premier on Saturday.

Mr Li also has a reputation for having worked quietly behind the scenes to drive a bold revamp of the megacity's sclerotic stock market.

Mr Li was nominated by President Xi Jinping and appointed to the position with no dissenting voices at Saturday morning’s session of the National People’s Congress, China’s ceremonial parliament.

He replaced the retiring Li Keqiang, widely perceived to have been sidelined as Mr Xi tightened his grip on management of the economy.

This came a day after Mr Xi, 69, secured a norms-breaking third five-year term as state leader, setting him up to possibly rule for life.

Shortly before, it was revealed China had brokered a deal for Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic relations, in a major diplomatic coup for Beijing.

Mr Li is best known for having enforced a “zero-Covid” lockdown in Shanghai last year  as party boss of the Chinese financial hub, proving his loyalty to Mr Xi in the face of complaints from residents over their lack of access to food, medical care and basic services.

But Mr Li was also instrumental in pushing for China's unexpectedly sudden end to its zero-Covid policy late last year, Reuters reported this month.

Mr Li's back-channelling – sources said he bypassed the China Securities Regulatory Commission, which lost some of its power under the new set-up – demonstrated what became a reputation for pragmatism as well as close ties with President Xi, Reuters reported.

In late 2018, Mr Xi himself announced Shanghai's new tech-focused STAR Market as well as the pilot of a registration-based IPO system, reforms meant to entice China's hottest young firms to list locally rather than overseas.

"The CSRC was very unhappy," said a veteran banker close to regulators and Shanghai officials, declining to be named given the sensitivity of the matter.

"Li's relationship with Xi played a role here," enabling him to present the scheme directly to the central government, without going through the CSRC, the person added.

The CSRC did not respond to a request for comment, Reuters said.

Trey McArver, co-founder of consultancy Trivium China, said Mr Li was likely to be much more powerful than his predecessor.

Mr Xi expended significant political capital to get him into the role, given Mr Li's lack of central government experience and the Shanghai lockdown, Mr McArver said.

"Officials know that Li Qiang is Xi Jinping's guy," he said. "He clearly thinks that Li Qiang is a very competent person and he has put him in this position because he trusts him and he expects a lot of him."

Mr Li, 63, did not respond to questions sent to China's State Council Information Office.

A career bureaucrat, Mr Li was revealed as the pick for China's number two role in October when Mr Xi unveiled a leadership line-up stacked with loyalists.

People who have interacted with Mr Li say they found him practical-minded, an effective bureaucratic operator and supportive of the private sector – a stance that would be expected in someone whose career put him in charge of some of China's most economically dynamic regions.

As Communist Party chief between 2002 to 2004 in his home city of Wenzhou, a hotbed of entrepreneurialism,  Mr Li came across as open-minded and willing to listen, said Zhou Dewen, who represented small and midsize enterprises in the city.