By Laurie Chen and Tony Munroe
BEIJING, March 11 (Reuters) – Li Qiang, the former Shanghai Communist Party chief, took over as the country’s No. 2 prime minister on Saturday, making President Xi Jinping a close ally tasked with reviving an economy battered by three years of COVID-19 restrictions.
Seen as a pragmatic and pro-business man, Li, 63, faces an arduous task to shore up China’s uneven recovery amid global headwinds and low consumer and private sector confidence.
Li takes office at a time of rising tensions with the West over a number of issues, including US moves to block China’s access to key technologies and many global companies diversifying their supply chains to cover its exposure to China due to the political risks and disruptions of the COVID era.
The career bureaucrat replaces Li Keqiang, who is retiring after two five-year terms in which his role has been increasingly reduced as Xi tightened his grip on power and steered the world’s second-largest economy in a more dire direction. state.
Li Qiang is the first prime minister since the founding of the People’s Republic to never hold a central government post, meaning he could face a steep learning curve in the first months of his term. , according to analysts.
However, Li’s close ties to Xi (Li was Xi’s chief of staff from 2004 to 2007, when Xi was provincial party secretary in Zhejiang province) will allow him to get things done, management watchers say. .
“My reading of the situation is that Li Qiang will have a lot more latitude and authority within the system,” said Trey McArver, co-founder of consultancy Trivium China.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen and Tony Munroe; Editing in Spanish by Juana Casas)