PERSON: Li Qiang

Government of the People’s Republic of China

Premier

Li Qiang (Chinese: 李强; pinyin: Lǐ Qiáng; born July 1959) is a Chinese politician. He became the 8th premier of the People’s Republic of China in March 2023, having been elevated to the second-ranking member on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee Politburo Standing Committee in October 2022. Li was the party secretary for Shanghai City from 2017 to 2022 where he pursued pro-business policies and handled the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Li is considered part of the “New Zhijiang Army,” the party faction of Xi Jinping, the CCP general secretary and top leader since 2012. The close relationship started in the mid-2000s when both held party positions in Zhejiang Province. Li is generally regarded by observers as pro-business and has voiced support for economic reforms.

Li was born in Rui’an, Zhejiang in July 1959. He was a worker in the Irrigation Pump Station of Mayu District, Rui’an County from 1976 to 1977, and worked in the Third Tool Factory of Rui’an from 1977 to 1978.

Li Qiang studied agricultural mechanization at the Ningbo Branch of Zhejiang Agricultural University (now Zhejiang Wanli University) from 1978 to 1982. He studied sociology by correspondence at the private China Sociology Correspondence University (中国社会学函授大学; defunct in 2021) in Beijing from 1985 to 1987.

Li attended Zhejiang University for on-the-job graduate studies in management engineering from 1995 to 1997 and the Central Party School for on-the-job graduate studies in world economics from 2001 to 2004. He attended Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 2003 to 2005 and received an executive Master of Business Administration in 2005.

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