Opinion | Premier Li: strong, or just moderate?

The premier's news conference on the closing day of "the two meetings" is an important date on the calendar, not only for journalists but also ordinary mainlanders.

The event is the only time in a year when the premier will meet the domestic and foreign media and pontificate on a wide range of issues, unvarnished and live on national television.

Yesterday's event was watched even more closely than usual at home and abroad as Li Keqiang made his debut as the new premier in front of the international media, on the last day of the annual plenary sessions of National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

He came across as being confident and pragmatic in dealing with questions on what he intends to achieve in the next five years ranging from pollution and urbanisation through to Sino-US and Sino-Russian relations.

Whereas his predecessor, Wen Jiabao , relished peppering his replies with poems and quotes from Chinese and foreign philosophers and urging the mainlanders to look at stars in the sky, Li avoided the high-sounding rhetoric and instead chose popular slang to illustrate his points.

Already billed by the state media as the reform-minded premier, Li vowed to push forward with necessary reforms to make mainland economic growth more sustainable, boost spending on improving mainlanders' livelihoods, build up a cleaner government and safeguard social justice.