China Premier Li Qiang Named Head of Powerful Financial Body

(Bloomberg) — China’s Premier Li Qiang chaired a meeting of the ruling Communist party’s new body for overseeing the financial sector, underlining his influence as details of the country’s new financial regulatory system become clearer.

Li was named head of the Central Financial Commission, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua news agency, which said he led a meeting approving plans for the “division of labor” in the financial policy sphere.

The Central Financial Commission was one of two new party bodies announced in March as part of an effort to move policy making for the sector away from government agencies toward party organizations.

The report confirms Li remains influential in setting financial policy alongside Vice Premier He Lifeng. He is the director of the Commission’s general office, which is seen as running the organization on a day-to-day basis.

He is also party secretary of the Central Financial Work Commission, the other new party body announced in March that oversees the ideological and political role of the party in the financial system.

Meanwhile, He has recently taken on several titles formerly held by Liu He, who was President Xi Jinping’s top economic aide until his retirement this year. He attended the meeting chaired by Li, Xinhua said.

The Commission will publish major policy documents covering welfare finance, pension finance and digital finance, without giving a timeline, according to Xinhua’s report.

Read more: China Vows to Meet ‘Reasonable’ Funding Needs of Developers

Li Qiang, formerly a top party official in Shanghai, is seen as business-friendly, with strong loyalty to Xi. He was made premier in March, replacing Li Keqiang.

China’s newly chartered Central Finance Commission started daily operations in late September, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported. More than 100 officials have been transferred from the central bank, securities and banking regulators, and other top economic ministries, it added.

The Communist party set broad priorities for the financial sector at a twice-a-decade meeting last month, vowing a long-term effort to diffuse risks from local government debt and to regulate small banks, as well as hinting it would support increased central government borrowing to boost the economy while local governments struggle with fiscal strains.