5/27/2023 0 Comments Dead rising 4 map legend decodedThe individual who will replace Li Keqiang (who has himself confirmed that he will no longer serve as Premier) is therefore of significant importance for economic policy. Now that China’s economy is facing growing headwinds to growth, including from sharper geopolitical risks, Xi is especially keen to wrest full control over economic policy, including by replacing the Premier and Vice Premiers with his own picks (see full analysis on Top Leadership for more details). Liu has also helped establish his influence by directing key trade talks, including those that led to the 2020 deal with the United States to pause the ongoing US-China trade war. Despite this, Xi’s elevation within the CFEAC of its powerful Central Office, which Liu directs along with the State Council’s influential Financial Stability and Development Committee (FSDC), has established Liu as China’s de facto Economic Tsar since 2017. This meant that Xi’s right-hand man and top economic advisor, Vice Premier Liu He, was also left out of the PBSC. Li’s continuing presence in his current position is partially the result of Xi’s lingering political weaknesses at the 19th Party Congress in 2017, when he was unable to appoint his own factional allies to two important positions on the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC): Premier and Executive Vice Premier, which went to Han Zheng, a Jiang Zemin faction choice. Li, however, is not a close ally to Xi, but a factional rival (and once his competition to become top leader) and a source of policy disagreement (though rumors of a significant power struggle between the two men are overblown Xi has successfully limited Li’s influence, making him the least powerful Premier in decades). The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is also influential in economic policy. However, much day-to-day responsibility currently falls to the far more economically-minded Premier Li Keqiang, who in addition to being deputy head of the CFEAC is also “Director” of the State Council, otherwise the most important power center when it comes to economic policy-making, along with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which is itself housed within the State Council. Institutionally, during the Xi era the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission (CFEAC), directed by Xi himself, has been elevated to command supreme decision-making power on economic policy. This means that Xi has had to effectively delegate economic policymaking to others to a degree that he has not had to in many other policy areas. Economy & Trade *To be updated soon* AnalysisĪlthough Xi Jinping, as everywhere, retains final decision-making power over economic policy, he has limited personal knowledge, experience, or even interest when it comes to economics, preferring to focus on broader political and strategic issues (and views economics through this lens).
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