Xi Jinping nominates Li Qiang as candidate for China’s next Premier: Report

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday nominated Li Qiang, 63, to become premier during the ongoing annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, a role charged with managing the world’s second-largest economy.

Li, the former Communist Party chief of Shanghai, China’s largest city, will replace Li Keqiang, who is retiring during the National People’s Congress session that ends on Monday, after serving two five-year terms.

Li Qiang is a close ally of Xi, serving as his chief of staff between 2004 and 2007, when Xi was provincial party secretary of eastern China’s Zhejiang province.

He was put on track for premier in October, when he was appointed to the number-two role on the Politburo Standing Committee during the once-in-five-years Communist Party Congress.

Xi is installing a slate of loyalists in key positions amid the biggest government reshuffle in a decade, as a generation of more reform-minded officials retires and Xi further consolidates power after being elected president for an unprecedented third term on Friday.