Li Qiang

Early Life and Grassroots Work

Li Qiang was born in July 1959 in Rui'an, Zhejiang. According to his official résumé published by Xinhua, he began working in 1976 at an electromechanical irrigation station in Mayu District, Rui'an County, was seconded in 1977 to a county "line education" work team stationed in Jiangxi Commune, and then worked at the Rui'an No. 3 Tool Factory. In 1978 he entered the agricultural mechanisation programme of the Ningbo branch of Zhejiang Agricultural University; after graduating in 1982 he returned to Rui'an as head of the Youth League in Xincheng District, joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1983, and in 1984 became secretary of the Rui'an County Youth League committee.

Provincial Departments and Local Posts in Zhejiang

In 1984 Li moved to the Zhejiang Civil Affairs Department, starting as a staff member in its rural relief division and rising to deputy division head, division head and head of personnel before becoming deputy director of the department in 1992; along the way he was seconded to the disaster relief department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and studied sociology by correspondence. From 1996 he was a member of the Jinhua city party standing committee and party secretary of Yongkang; in 1998 he became deputy director of the Zhejiang provincial government's general office, in 2000 director of the Zhejiang Administration for Industry and Commerce, and from 2002 to 2004 party secretary of Wenzhou. During these years he took postgraduate courses at Zhejiang University and the Central Party School and earned an executive MBA from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Secretary-General and Governor of Zhejiang

In 2004 Li became secretary-general of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, joining its standing committee in 2005 and remaining secretary-general until 2012. Xi Jinping was Zhejiang's party secretary from 2002 to 2007, and Li served as his secretary-general during that time; University of Chicago political scientist Dali L. Yang describes him as a former top aide to Xi. In 2011 Li became deputy party secretary of Zhejiang and head of its political and legal affairs commission; he became acting governor at the end of 2012 and was governor of Zhejiang from 2013 to 2016.

As governor he oversaw a reform of government itself centred on "four lists and one network": lists of administrative powers, government responsibilities, a negative list for enterprise investment and management of special fiscal funds, plus the Zhejiang government services website; local media reported that he personally planned and directed the reform at each key stage. In 2015 "characteristic towns" appeared for the first time in the Zhejiang government work report, and the Dream Town in Hangzhou, opened that year, was named by him.

Jiangsu and Shanghai

In 2016 Li left Zhejiang to become party secretary of Jiangsu, also becoming chairman of its provincial people's congress standing committee in 2017; that October, after the 19th Party Congress, he was elected to the Politburo and moved to Shanghai as party secretary. On 5 November 2018, at the opening of the first China International Import Expo, Xi Jinping announced a new area of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, a sci-tech innovation board with a registration-based IPO system on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and elevation of Yangtze River Delta integration to a national strategy; Li said Shanghai immediately set to work with national agencies to implement them. On 22 July 2019 he and China Securities Regulatory Commission chairman Yi Huiman struck the gong to open the STAR Market.

In spring 2022 the Omicron variant spread through Shanghai. According to Yang, Li convened an all-city cadre meeting on the evening of 30 March, admitted inadequacies in the city's work, understanding and preparation, and announced comprehensive control measures for all areas and all people, including static management and PCR screening; Shanghai then entered a citywide lockdown of about two months marked by serious shortages of food and difficulties obtaining medical care.

Premier

In October 2022 Li was elected to the Politburo Standing Committee at the First Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. On 11 March 2023 the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress appointed him Premier of the State Council, succeeding Li Keqiang. At his first premier's press conference on 13 March, speaking about the private economy, he said that the "two unwaverings" were an important part of China's basic economic system and a long-term policy that "has not changed in the past and will not change in the future", and that the environment for private firms would keep improving.

On 4 March 2024, Lou Qinjian, spokesperson for the Second Session of the 14th NPC, announced that there would be no premier's press conference after the session closed and, barring special circumstances, none in the remaining years of that NPC's term. In his government work reports of 2024 and 2025 Li set a GDP growth target of around 5%.