BEIJING, May 9 — If Shanghai Communist Party chief Li Qiang has been politically bruised by the city’s struggle to tame a Covid-19 outbreak that has infuriated residents and caused severe economic damage, there is little sign of it.
And while Xi may be China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, he needs a core of staunch loyalists on the seven-member Standing Committee. That strategy failed. A spike in infections prompted an about-turn, a more-than five-week lockdown of the city of 25 million. The party bosses in Wuhan, where Covid was first detected, and surrounding Hubei province, were replaced in 2020. At least 31 officials in the northwestern city of Xian were punished this year after an outbreak that led to lockdown.But none of those Shanghai officials were above the district level and the most senior Xian official punished was the health chief.
“But because of Li’s closeness with Xi, his potential usefulness to Xi as a chess piece in the new leadership lineup, and because the Shanghai party boss is of a much higher rank than the party bosses of most other cities in China, Li is going to be safe.”Li has repeatedly appeared on state media visiting residential compounds and hospitals, wearing an N95 mask, black jacket and pants — the de facto uniform for party leaders in the field.
“If Shanghai’s Covid fight were to be billed as a success, then why should Li, steadfastly implementing Xi’s approach leading to this success, be punished?”, said Chen Daoyin, former associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, now a commentator based in Chile.
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