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WASHINGTON — Speculation has been spreading about the future, role, and place in China’s power structure of Premier Li Qiang since the unexplained cancellation of a routine press conference he was expected to hold last month. It was arguably the biggest news about Li, a figure largely unknown to the outside world, since he took office a year ago. Analysts tell VOA that to better know Li, it is important to understand his place in China’s leadership structure – highly centralized under Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s tight rule – and the two men’s past together, which stretches back two decades. Path to premiership Li was born in 1959 in a rural area of China’s coastal province Zhejiang. His family is rooted in the farming communities of Zhejiang, and Li started out working as an industrial laborer at the age of 17 after he graduated from high school. His background differs sharply from that of his boss, Xi Jinping, whose father was one of China’s first generation of Communist Party leaders. His background is also different from that of his immediate predecessor, Li Keqiang, who studied at the prestigious Beijing University and whose father was a local party official. Li Qiang’s climb within the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party began after studying at an agricultural college in his home province. After graduating in 1982, Li did not work in factories or in the rural communities again. From 2000 to 2002, Li presided over the Zhejiang provincial bureau of commerce. In 2002, at age 43, he rose to become the youngest Communist Party secretary of Wenzhou, known to be a capital of entrepreneurs, in his native Zhejiang province. That same year, Xi Jinping moved from Fujian, another coastal province, to lead Zhejiang as its party secretary, directly overseeing Wenzhou and other municipalities. It was during Xi’s tenure in Zhejiang, from 2002 until he left for Shanghai in 2007, that the two men had opportunities to know each other. From 2004 to 2005, Li served as the chief of staff to Zhejiang’s provincial Communist Party committee, essentially Xi’s chief of staff. His portfolio soon expanded to include membership in the provincial Communist Party standing committee, deputy provincial party secretary, head of the provincial political and legal affairs committee, and governor of Zhejiang. Li was promoted to party secretary in neighboring Jiangsu province in 2016 and a year later to party secretary of Shanghai. He was placed in the premiership in March 2023. “It is fair to say that all of his later promotions happened thanks to Xi,” Xia Ming, a China-born political science professor at the City University of New York, said in a phone interview with VOA. Wenzhou model “It’s worth noting that Li is closely tied to what is known as the ‘Wenzhou model,’ which resembles what is known in the West as liberal economics,” Xia added. What enabled the private entrepreneur-led “Wenzhou model” to succeed, Xia said, was local Communist Party officials’ non-interference at the time, which stands in contrast with the party’s heavy-handedness today. “Now that Li has joined Xi’s cabinet, whatever model he might have been tied to will have to succumb to the Xi model,” Hu Ping told VOA. Hu Ping is a native of China’s south-central Sichuan province and received his degrees from Beijing University in the 1980s, before entering into exile in the United States. Hu Ping is editor emeritus of China Spring magazine. Steve Tsang, author of The Political Thought of Xi Jinping, explained to VOA in a phone interview from London how he sees the Xi model: “What Xi Jinping is trying to do is to create one country, one people, one ideology, one party, one leader,” Tsang said.  Unlike Li Keqiang, who landed the job due to support from party elders, Tsang added, Li Qiang was hand-picked by Xi and is expected to do Xi’s bidding. While Li Qiang’s appointment to succeed Li Keqiang is seen as an attempt to solidify the above model, there were signs that Li Qiang’s ties with the Chinese business community from his years working in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai might be tapped to help Xi solve some of the country’s economic challenges.  Potential mediator The Economist reported in March of last year that Li Qiang had a hand in persuading one of China’s most famous businessmen, Jack Ma, to return to China. Ma, like Li, a native of Zhejiang, had reportedly fallen out with Xi amid crackdowns on private enterprises and Ma’s increasing popularity, both at home and abroad. Ma was said gone into self-imposed exile in Japan. Li was “trying to reassure wealthy private entrepreneurs that, though they should know their place, they are still valued by the party,” according to the article. Despite assurances to Ma and private entrepreneurs, China’s economy continues to face big challenges, including falling foreign direct investment and outflow of capital. Li Qiang’s predecessor, Li Keqiang, was known for his straight talk on China’s economy and calling for a more domestic welfare-centered approach, in contrast to the state power-centric and expansionist model put forth by Xi.  In May 2020, Li Keqiang told reporters at the National People’s Congress press conference that more than 40 percent of China’s population of 1.4 billion live on $143 a month, remarks seen as a rebuke of the official line that poverty has been eliminated all throughout the country under Xi’s leadership. Li Keqiang even developed an index for measuring China’s economic growth that was deemed more reliable than local government figures because it looked at railway cargo volume, electric consumption and loans disbursed by banks. Li Qiang, who stepped into Li Keqiang’s role a year ago, is widely seen as a Xi protégé whose key job is doing the bidding of China’s leader. Whether that might include other mediation efforts on behalf of Xi in China’s political and economic power struggles remains to be seen.  “To be a middleman, or power broker, you need to have a certain amount of sway on both sides,” said City University of New York’s Xia Ming. Putting his loyalist credentials aside, Xia said Li is also under pressure to show his ability to take care of the Chinese Communist Party’s pocketbook.  Mao Zedong’s old saying that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun has since been amended, Xia adds. To stay in power, the money bag is a key factor as well.  

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

STATE DEPARTMENT — NATO foreign ministers meeting Wednesday in Brussels are expected to discuss a proposal to create a $100 billion fund for supporting Ukraine’s military. The plan, put forward by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, also includes making NATO more directly involved in coordinating military assistance being provided by member countries, a role that has been filled by a U.S.-led coalition of more than 50 countries. A final decision on the proposal would not come until NATO heads of state meet at a summit in July. Ahead of the Brussels talks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed calls for the U.S. Congress to release military aid for Ukraine. “We are at a critical moment where it is absolutely essential to get Ukrainians what they continue to need to defend themselves, particularly when it comes to munitions and air defenses,” Blinken said Tuesday during a visit to a defense facility in Paris with French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Congress is yet to approve the Biden administration’s supplementary budget request that would provide aid to resupply Ukraine’s armed forces and help the country fend off Russian offensives. Biden has called on the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives to approve the military and financial aid package. House Republicans have delayed action on it for months, prioritizing domestic issues. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Ukrainian forces will have to retreat “step by step, in small steps,” if Kyiv doesn’t receive the U.S. military aid. French Foreign Minister Séjourné was in Beijing earlier this week. He said after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that France expects China to convey "clear messages" to its close partner Russia regarding Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. France and China have sought to strengthen ties in recent years. Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning a visit to France in May. During meetings in Paris in February, Wang told French President Macron that Beijing appreciated his country's "independent" stance. But Paris has also sought to press Beijing on its close ties with Moscow, which have only grown closer since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. U.S. and French officials said they are working closely to effectively prevent the transfer of weapons and materials to Russia from North Korea and China, which could fuel Moscow’s defense industrial base. Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

At least five employees from the World Central Kitchen charity, including foreigners, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. Those killed in the incident in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah included citizens of Poland, Australia and Britain, as well as one Palestinian. On Monday, the Iranian embassy in Damascus was hit by an airstrike. VOA’s Michael Lipin spoke with Retired Israeli Major General Yaakov Amidror, former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As Senegal’s Faye takes office, France watches closely. Bassirou Diomaye Faye was sworn in Tuesday as Senegal’s newest president. Thai LGBT activists rang in another victory after the marriage equality bill overwhelmingly passed the upper house's first reading on Tuesday, a significant move that will bring the country closer to becoming the third territory in Asia to legalize same-sex unions

On a call Tuesday, President Joe Biden discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping a range of high-level issues and reiterated his request that China not use web-based disinformation tools to interfere with the U.S. presidential election. The two leaders also discussed Taiwan – the island China claims – as it prepares to inaugurate a new leader next month. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington.

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White House national security spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. was "outraged" over the Israeli airstrike that killed seven workers with a Washington-based charity, and he called on Israel to do more to ensure civilians and humanitarian aid workers are protected. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.

LONDON — The suspects who allegedly stabbed a journalist for an independent Iranian media outlet in London last week fled the country after the attack, police said on Tuesday. Pouria Zeraati, 36, a presenter for Persian-language Iran International, was stabbed in his leg last Friday afternoon outside his home in Wimbledon, southwest London. He was treated in a hospital for injuries to his leg and released on Monday. On Tuesday, Scotland Yard said three men carried out the attack. "Detectives have established the victim was approached by two men in a residential street and attacked," it said in a statement. "The suspects fled the scene in a vehicle driven by a third male." The suspects later abandoned the car, which is being examined by forensic experts, Scotland Yard said. "After abandoning the vehicle, the suspects travelled directly to Heathrow Airport and left the UK within a few hours of the attack," it said, without providing further details. London's Metropolitan Police had said after the stabbing that the motive was unclear, but that "the victim's occupation as a journalist at a Persian-language media organisation based in the UK" was being considered. Head of the police's anti-terror unit, Dominic Murphy, said police still "do not know the reason why this victim was attacked, and there could be a number of explanations for this." "All lines of enquiry are being pursued, and we are keeping an open mind on any potential motivation for the attack," he said. Iran's charge d'affaires in the U.K., Mehdi Hosseini Matin, on Saturday said that Tehran denied "any link" to the incident. The Met has said it had disrupted what it has called plots in the U.K. to kidnap or even kill British or Britain-based individuals perceived as enemies of Tehran. The Iranian government has declared Iran International a terrorist organization. The U.K. government last year unveiled a tougher sanctions regime against Iran over alleged human rights violations and hostile actions against its opponents on U.K. soil.

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new york — A U.S. judge on Tuesday rejected exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui's bid to dismiss an indictment accusing him of defrauding thousands of investors out of more than $1 billion.  U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan said prosecutors sufficiently alleged that Guo engaged in a pattern of racketeering through four fraud schemes, and that proving it was a matter for trial.  Lawyers for Guo did not immediately respond to requests for comment after business hours.  Guo has pleaded not guilty to 12 criminal charges including securities fraud, wire fraud, unlawful monetary transactions and conspiracy, including for money laundering.  According to the indictment, Guo and his accomplices defrauded investors in a media company, cryptocurrency and other ventures.  The indictment said Guo took advantage of his prolific online presence and hundreds of thousands of followers by promising outsized financial returns and other benefits.  In reality, the scheme allowed the co-conspirators to enrich themselves and family members and fund Guo's "extravagant lifestyle," the indictment said.  Two co-defendants face related criminal charges, and one defendant is charged with obstruction.  Also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Kwok, Guo is a critic of China's Communist Party and a business associate of former U.S. President Donald Trump's onetime adviser Steve Bannon.  Guo has been jailed in Brooklyn, a borough in New York City, since his March 2023 arrest, with Torres and a federal appeals court rejecting his proposed $25 million bail package last year.  Jury selection in his trial is scheduled to begin on May 20.  Prosecutors also sought the forfeiture of various assets, including bank accounts, a $37 million yacht, a New Jersey mansion, a Bugatti, a Lamborghini and a Rolls Royce.  Guo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Connecticut in February 2022. That case was later combined with the bankruptcies of other companies he controlled. Torres has twice rejected Guo's bid to stay the bankruptcy proceedings. 

NEW YORK — A company that provides services for immigrants in federal detention was ordered Tuesday to pay more than $811 million in restitution and penalties in a lawsuit alleging it used deceptive and abusive tactics. Nexus Services must pay roughly $231 million in restitution as well as penalties of $13.8 million to New York, $7.1 million to Virginia and $3.4 million to Massachusetts, according to a judgment filed in federal court for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg. The Virginia-based company, its subsidiary Libre by Nexus and its three executives must also each pay more than $111 million in civil penalties. "This judgment is a victory for thousands of immigrant families who lost their life savings and were targeted and preyed on by Libre," New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. "Libre exploited vulnerable immigrants and their families to pad its pockets, and that is illegal and unconscionable." James joined state attorneys general in Virginia and Massachusetts and the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a 2021 lawsuit that accused the company of violating state and federal consumer protection laws. The officials said the company promised to secure immigrants' release on bond while their immigration claims were being processed but concealed and misrepresented the true nature and costs of its services. They said the company collected thousands of dollars in fees above the face value of the bonds and forced immigrants to wear painful ankle monitors. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon noted in her decision that the company isn't a licensed bail bond agent or a surety company certified by the U.S. Treasury but a "service provider that acts as an intermediary between immigration detainees and sureties and their bond agents." The company said in a statement that it intends to appeal the judgment, calling it a "shocking departure from normal American jurisprudence" as it was decided "without evidence, without a trial and without a damages hearing." "We continue to remain committed to serving our clients — people who suffer and sacrifice for a better life, and who do not deserve to be political pawns in an American legislature or an American courtroom," the company added.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. and like-minded countries must find new ways to monitor the enforcement of sanctions on North Korea after the mandate of a U.N. expert group expires this month, say former U.S. officials with deep experience in North Korea sanctions.   The U.N. Panel of Experts has been tasked with investigating whether member states are enforcing sanctions on North Korea for the past 15 years. But at a Security Council meeting on March 28, Russia vetoed a resolution calling for the panel's annual extension, and the panel will be disbanded after April 30.   This is the first time the Security Council has failed to extend the panel's mandate for another year. But Russia has grown closer to North Korea since Pyongyang began supplying weapons for Moscow's war in Ukraine in violation of the sanctions. The panel, consisting of eight experts and created in 2009, produced an in-depth report published twice a year describing cases that pointed to violations of the sanctions by U.N. member states and their entities and nationals. Those sanctions will remain in effect. Once the panel is no longer active, the U.S. and other countries that supported its work — such as the U.K., France, Japan and South Korea — will have to rely on other ways to monitor and enforce the sanctions.  Potential alternatives include the use of new or existing coalition groups, which can be "far more powerful than relying on the U.N. Panel of Experts," said Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington who helped draft the Sanctions and Policy Enforcement Act in 2016.  Stanton said via email to VOA on Friday that Washington should see Moscow's veto "as an opportunity to break free of Russian and Chinese obstructionism, to build a better coalition, and to give sanctions investigation and enforcement the vigor the U.N. system always denied."  The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), led by the U.S. and consisting of more than 100 countries, aims to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction, including through interdiction.  It was created by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2003 in response to a failed attempt by the U.S. and Spain to confiscate the cargo of a North Korean ship carrying ballistic missiles to Yemen in 2002.   PSI member states can rely on their national laws to authorize an interdiction, said Stanton.  Another international coalition is the Egmont Group, which aims to counter money-laundering and terrorism financing.  Created in 1995, it is comprises financial intelligence units from 174 member states that share information and collaborate to counter illicit financial activities. The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is a founding member. The U.S. is establishing another coalition with South Korea. On March 26, Washington announced it held the inaugural meeting of the Enhanced Disruption Task Force with Seoul aimed at blocking North Korea from procuring refined petroleum in violation of U.N. sanctions.  Anthony Ruggiero worked in the U.S. government for more than 19 years, focusing on targeted financial sanctions and proliferation issues, including those involving North Korea. He told VOA in a telephone interview on Monday that these multilateral groups, like PSI, are "always a benefit" to monitoring and enforcing sanctions. "We need those groups to say which authorities can take actions, whether through sanctions or enforcement actions or other mechanisms to stop these activities," added Ruggiero, who is now a senior director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.   He also said that "U.S. sanctions are more robust than U.N. sanctions" and the question is whether Washington is willing to enforce them fully, for example, by targeting Chinese and Russian companies, individuals and banks that hire North Korean workers in violation of sanctions. China has been accused of employing North Korean laborers to process seafood products and false eyelashes. Expanding cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang has spurred concerns that North Korean workers will flock to Russia for wages they remit to the state.  Aaron Arnold, a former member of the U.N. Panel of Experts who is currently a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute based in London, said there will be opposition to sanctions monitoring outside the U.N. Arnold told VOA via email on Friday, "While Western governments will, of course, step in to provide intelligence and information about North Korea's sanctions evasion activities, the stark reality is that these efforts will be viewed with a great deal of suspicion by non-Western countries." 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.