During the ongoing annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping has nominated Li Qiang, who is 63 years old, to take on the role of premier responsible for managing the world’s second-largest economy.
Li Qiang is a close ally of Xi, serving as his chief of staff between 2004 and 2007, when Xi was provincial party secretary of eastern China’s Zhejiang province.
He was put on track for premier in October, when he was appointed to the number-two role on the Politburo Standing Committee during the once-in-five-years Communist Party Congress.
Xi is installing a slate of loyalists in key positions amid the biggest government reshuffle in a decade, as a generation of more reform-minded officials retires and Xi further consolidates power after being elected president for an unprecedented third term on Friday.
