After the Liang Hui: Team Xi in Charge

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"Heaven is looking at what humans are doing. The firmament has eyes" (人在干,天在看,苍天有眼). These were Premier Li Keqiang’s parting words for his colleagues in the State Council, China’s cabinet. This year’s meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s Parliament, which ended on March 13, suggests that the eyes of heaven are the only accountability left for China’s now third term president Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Xi received 2952 votes out of the 2952 NPC delegates present. Li Keqiang showed no special emotion while presenting his 10th and last government work report. His somewhat stiff public persona had always contrasted with his lively, inquisitive manner in more private settings. The report itself was uneventful and blissfully short at 53 minutes in all. After his speech, he bowed to the audience, to the rostrum with the new party leadership, and to the audience again, and sat down. This marked the end of his career as a government official.Even though he was overshadowed by Xi Jinping in the past decade, Li Keqiang, a one-time contender for the CPC top job, can look back on an exceptional career. As a graduate from the famous “Class of 77,” the first class of university graduates that passed the university entry exam after the cultural revolution, his career was on a fast track, supported by his growing powerbase in the Communist Youth League.He became the youngest party secretary in CPC history in Henan, and later in Liaoning, before becoming executive vice-premier under Premier Wen Jiabao. As such he led China’s economy…