Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader since Mao, is preparing to reshuffle the leadership teams of officials tasked with overseeing sectors such as finance, technology and more.

The annual session of the National People’s Congress begins next Sunday, March 5, and Xi Jinping is expected to use the opportunity to push for a reshuffle at the top echelons of the economy, technology and science, appointing his closest aides to key posts. according to the Financial Times.

According to the same publication, Premier Li Keqiang and his own group of technocrats are now on their way to being replaced, while Xi Jinping, for his part, is pushing for “vast” changes that will strengthen state/party control over the fields of technology, economics, and science. .

These changes come at a critical post-pandemic moment for the Chinese economy, whose GDP is expected to grow by just 3% in 2022, compared to the official target of 5.5%.

Xi’s new team will be tasked with reassuring investors that China is reopened for business and ready to tackle long-term structural challenges such as rising public debt, demographic decline and declining productivity, according to the FT.

It is recalled that since October last year, Xi put “his” people on the seven-member Standing Committee, whose composition has changed, while also achieving a new, third – and therefore unprecedented – five-year term of leadership.

According to FT