Chinese premier Li Keqiang will step down from his post after 2022, news agency Bloomberg reported. Keqiang made the announcement during an annual news conference on Friday. Keqiang was key to China’s economic policy design for the past few years.
The report by Bloomberg explained that in China, the president – Xi Jinping – is the head of the state while the premier is the head of the state council which also oversees a range of ministries. “This year is also the last year in my premiership,” Keqiang said.
Keqiang during his announcement also highlighted that it will be hard for China to maintain high growth in an increasingly uncertain world, news agency AFP said in a separate report.
“At the global level, maintaining medium to high growth for an economy of this size is a major challenge,” Keqiang told China’s rubber-stamp parliament. China is also concerned regarding its business relations with Ukraine which is its top trading partner. Ukraine also supplies China with nearly a third of its corn imports.
Along with Li, other members of the party’s top brass are also expected to retire. China will hold its twice-a-decade party meeting later this year following which president Xi Jinping will commence his precedent-breaking third-term since he removed presidential term limits in 2018.
“I’m confident that under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee, with comrade Xi Jinping at its core, with strong support of various sectors, and especially with the joint hard work of the Chinese people across the country, China’s economy will be able to overcome difficulties,” Li was quoted as saying by news agency Bloomberg. He said that the leadership will be able to lay a solid foundation for China’s future with its vision. He also said that the government will achieve the social and economic goals that it has set up.
Li announced that China’s economic growth will be 5.5% for 2022 — the lowest since 1991, news agency AFP reported.
China is also suffering from an outbreak of Covid-19 with caseloads reaching new highs after its zero-Covid policy started showing cracks. Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, was locked down as Covid-19 cases surged.
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