在中國習近平將更多的權力授予他信任的二號人物 (1/2)

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

Xi Is Delegating More Authority in China to His Trusted No. 2 (1/2)

Bloomberg News

Wed, November 29, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. GMT+8

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping spent his first decade in office accumulating power at the expense of the Communist Party’s No. 2 official. Now that he’s installed a trusted loyalist as premier, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong is getting more comfortable delegating authority.

Last week, state media revealed Chinese Premier Li Qiang is overseeing the Central Financial Commission created in March — surprising analysts who expected his boss to take the job.

Xi — who has been called the “Chairman of Everything” for the sheer amount of titles he’s accumulated — leads all of the seven central commissions set up before he further consolidated power at a leadership congress last year.

The break with precedent to appoint Li was the latest example of Xi giving his No. 2 more leeway, now the role is occupied by someone he shares a past with. Li served as the Chinese leader’s top aide in Zhejiang province in the early 2000s, and his political ascent has closely tracked Xi’s own trajectory.

His loyalty is being rewarded. In September, Li became the first Chinese premier to represent his nation at a Group of Twenty leaders’ summit, as Xi skipped the meeting amid a geopolitical rift with the host, India. The Chinese leader also dispatched his second-in-command to the Boao Forum for Asia in March, despite attending the event in previous years.

Xi’s decision to disperse his workload is a sign he trusts Li, and wants to test his No. 2’s ability, according to Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

“The delegating is dynamic, it really depends on Xi Jinping’s needs,” added Wu. “He does not want to engage personally in every single front-line battle.”

Premier Position

During Xi’s first two terms, China’s premier was Li Keqiang, a trained economist considered to hail from a rival faction of the Communist Party to his princeling boss.

Xi embarked on a massive restructuring mission to move policy areas traditionally overseen by the premier in the State Council into Communist Party organs that he controlled. That included creating central commissions on deepening reform, national security, economic and financial affairs, and cyber security.

(to be continued)

Translation

（彭博）—中國國家主席習近平在執政的第一個十年裡，以犧牲共產黨二號人物為代價來累積權力。 現在，他任命了一位值得信賴的忠誠者擔任總理，這位自毛澤東以來中國最有權勢的領導人

，官方媒體上週透露，中國總理李強正在監管 3 月成立的中央金融委員會，這讓原本預計他的上司會担當這一職位的分析師感到驚訝。

習近平因其積累的頭銜之多而被稱為 “管一切的主席”，在去年的一次領導大會上進一步鞏固權力之前，他領導著所有已成立的七個中央委員會。

打破先例任命李強是習近平給予二號人物更多迴旋餘地的最新例子，現在這個職由一位與他有共同過去的人擔任。 2000年代初，李強擔任中國領導人在浙江省的高級助手，他的政治崛起與習近平本人的軌跡密切相關。

他的忠誠正在得到回報。 9月，李強成為首位代表中國出席二十國集團領袖峰會的中國總理，習近平因與東道主印度存在地緣政治分歧而缺席了會議。 儘管習近平往年都參加博鰲亞洲論壇，今年三月，亦派出第二把手出席博鰲亞洲論壇。

新加坡國立大學李光耀公共政策學院副教授 Alfred Wu 表示，習近平決定分散工作量，顯示他信任李克強，並想測試他的二號人物的能力。

Wu 補充道「授權是動態的，這實際上取決於習近平的需要」; 「他不想親自參與每一場前線戰鬥」。

總理地位

在習近平的前兩屆任期內，中國總理是李克強，他是一位訓練有素的經濟學家，被認為來自與他的太子黨老闆相反的共產黨派別。

習近平開始了一項大規模的重組任務，將傳統上由國務院總理監督的政策領域轉移到他控制的共產黨機構。 其中包括成立中央委員會，負責深化改革、國家安全、經濟和金融事務以及網路安全。

（待續）