China’s ‘two sessions’: Li Qiang brings ‘down-to-earth’ style as premier
- The former governor of Zhejiang expects bureaucrats to get out of the office and find solutions at the grass roots
- Li’s governing approach was honed in his home province which was known for its pro-business light touch and listening ear
Li said inspection and study trips to the front line and grass roots would be the new government’s top priority to improve its work style.
“I have worked in regional government for a long time, and I have a profound learning [from those experiences]: when you sit in the office, all you see is problems, but when you go to the grass roots, you will see solutions,” Li said.
“True masters can be found in the grass roots,” he said, quoting a Chinese idiom.
“We must send more cadres at all levels to the front line, ask the people what they need and what solutions they have … especially young comrades who have worked in government offices for a long time, they must go deeper into the grass roots and be more down-to-earth.”
03:24
China’s new premier Li Qiang outlines priorities in first press conference
Li also said the new cabinet members would carry out their administrative duties according to the law, improve their “ability to execute policies with creativity”, and hold the bottom line of integrity.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said Li was bringing his hallmark governing style in Zhejiang province – endorsed by Xi – to China’s new administration team.
“That was a work style Xi promoted in Zhejiang and reinforced by Li Qiang and other local cadres. They are known to have less hot air and a more service-oriented attitude towards the private sector, compared to cadres from the north,” Wu said.
Before his latest appointment, Li was the Communist Party boss of economic powerhouses Shanghai and Jiangsu province, as well as governor of Zhejiang, a pioneering area for private sector development after China’s reform and opening up.
During his governorship from 2012 to 2016, Li – a native of Zhejiang – always stressed that the direction of the local economy depended on its entrepreneurs’ creativity.
‘He has room to do something great’: what to expect from China’s next premier
Earlier, he served as Xi’s chief of staff during the president’s own stint as Zhejiang governor from 2002 to 2007. As a long-time aide, Li is expected to have more leeway to express his thoughts in public without being seen as a challenge to Xi.
Li is also well regarded for the service-oriented culture he fostered as Zhejiang governor. During his tenure, the province was known for having the least approval requirements, highest efficiency and the best pro-business investment in China.
Xie Maosong, a senior fellow of the Taihe Institute and a senior researcher at the National Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University, said Li’s message showed he wanted a different administration style from his predecessor.
“Instead of following the theories from books or Western economic doctrine, Xi and Li Qiang are both believers that the answers [to] China’s unique development problems can only be found in China, while all the Western experiences are just references,” he said.
