China's National People’s Congress approved a proposed Cabinet shake-up on the second last day of Parliament’s annual full session. - Photo from AFP
BEIJING, Dec 12 (The Straits Times/ANN): China reshuffled its Cabinet on Sunday and appointed new vice-premiers tasked with helping President Xi Jinping and newly-minted Premier Li Qiang steer a slower-growing economy amid increasing global uncertainties.
The National People’s Congress approved a proposed Cabinet shake-up on the second last day of Parliament’s annual full session, naming four vice-premiers, five state councillors, the top state planner, the central bank governor, financial regulators and other members of the State Council.
Xi, 69, who secured an unprecedented third five-year term as President on Friday, has stacked the Cabinet with his men to try to get the country’s Covid-19-ravaged economy back on track, while boosting sagging investor confidence following government crackdowns on the private sector – from tech titans to property developers – in recent years.
Li, 63, who was confirmed as Premier on Saturday and is a trusted political ally of Xi, and his new economic and financial teams will take their cue from the President to jump-start the world’s second-biggest economy amid worsening relations with the United States, which considers an increasingly assertive China a threat and rival.
Domestically, dealing with high youth unemployment, at about 17 per cent at the end of last year, and a record 11.58 million graduates who will flood the job market this year, is also a headache for policymakers.
On Sunday, Parliament endorsed Mr Ding Xuexiang, the right-hand man of Xi, as Executive or No. 1 Vice-Premier, entrusting him to help manage the domestic economy. Although Mr Ding has no experience with running a province nor handling economic matters, he has worked in various branches of the party apparatus and is adept at coordination.
An engineer by training, Ding, whose first job was at the Shanghai Research Institute of Materials, could play a critical role in driving China’s push for technological self-reliance in the face of US chip sanctions.
At 60, Ding became the youngest member of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) 20th Politburo Standing Committee – the apex of power in the nation – during the CPC’s national congress in October 2022. Of the seven Standing Committee members, he is the only one born in the 1960s.
The other three vice-premiers sit in the party’s 24-member Politburo, one notch below the Standing Committee.
Newly appointed Vice-Premier He Lifeng, 68, another Xi loyalist and formerly the top state planner, is the new economic czar, taking over from retired Liu He who was instrumental in managing the US-China trade war.
He, who has a doctorate in economics, rose through the ranks in Fujian province where he worked for 25 years, including with Mr Xi in Xiamen when the latter was vice-mayor in the 1980s.
The other two vice-premiers are former Shaanxi provincial party secretary Liu Guozhong, 60, and former Liaoning provincial party secretary Zhang Guoqing, 58, both highly capable technocrats whom Mr Xi now favours to help fulfill his ambitions of making China a techno-superpower.
As part of the Cabinet reshuffle, aerospace engineer and People’s Liberation Army general Li Shangfu, 65, was named Defence Minister, taking over from General Wei Fenghe who has retired.
Zhejiang governor Zheng Shanjie, 61, will take over from He as the country’s state planner.
But practically all other Cabinet members retained their positions, including central bank governor Yi Gang, 65; Finance Minister Liu Kun, 66; and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, 58.
CHINA’S NEW CABINET
Here are the five men who now sit at the top of the State Council:
Li Qiang, 63
Premier
Li, the former Shanghai party leader, skipped the traditional intermediary step of serving a term as vice-premier before becoming premier. Despite having no experience in the central government system, and also having been seen to have bungled Shanghai’s Covid-19 response last year, he was hand-picked by President Xi Jinping to be his No. 2. With Xi’s trust, he could be given more room to manage the economy.
Ding Xuexiang, 60
Executive Vice-Premier
Formerly Xi’s chief of staff, Ding lacks experience with running a province but has worked across various departments within the party apparatus and is one of Xi’s most trusted aides. He started as a research fellow at the Shanghai Research Institute of Materials, and worked his way up the party ranks in Shanghai.
He Lifeng, 68
Vice-Premier
He, China’s former top economic planner, and Xi go back decades when they served together in Xiamen. He, who has a doctorate in economics, takes over from Mr Liu He as China’s new economic czar. As the previous head of the National Development and Reform Commission, he oversaw major infrastructure investments to boost the country’s economic growth.
Liu Guozhong, 60
Vice-Premier
Formerly the party secretary of Shaanxi, Xi’s home province, Liu trained as an engineer and had early in his career worked for Li Zhanshu, previously the third-ranked Politburo Standing Committee member and a Xi ally. He could be given the public health portfolio vacated by just-retired vice-premier Sun Chunlan, who spearheaded China’s Covid-19 response.
Zhang Guoqing, 58
Vice-Premier
Formerly the party secretary of Liaoning province, Zhang belongs to a class of technocrats whom Xi has filled the current wider Politburo with. Zhang was previously mayor of Chongqing and Tianjin, and also chief executive of state-owned military contractor North Industries. He has a doctorate in economics from Tsinghua University, and could be tasked with overseeing industrial policy.
- The Straits Times/ANN
