Li Keqiang, a bureaucrat with an easy smile but a mixed record, will step up China’s Communist hierarchy at this week’s congress on his way to becoming prime minister of the world’s second-largest economy.
Vice-Premier Li is expected to take over the reins of day-to-day government from his boss Wen Jiabao in March.
For the past decade, Wen has cultivated an image as the friendly face of the Communist Party, voicing qualified support for political reform, condemning corruption and comforting disaster victims.
Wen has also railed against the rampant official corruption that infuriates many ordinary Chinese – though a report last month said his relatives had amassed US$2.7 billion in “hidden riches” since 1992.
Li, 57, is a politician with a similarly affable manner, fluent English and a more youthful bearing than his stiff party peers, and who has voiced support for the kind of economic reforms many experts say China sorely needs.
But his efficacy has already been questioned after an endless stream of health scandals – the vice-premier heads a national commission set up to prevent such abuses.
