Sharjah24 - AFP: One of Chinese President Xi Jinping's most dependable allies, Li Qiang, was officially sworn in as premier on Saturday, further solidifying Xi's hold over the nation's top officials.
Li, the former Shanghai party chief who oversaw the city's gruelling two-month lockdown last spring, was named the successor of outgoing premier Li Keqiang at a meeting of the country's rubber-stamp parliament.
The 63-year-old received nearly every vote from the more than 2,900 delegates at the National People's Congress, a day after Xi was unanimously selected by deputies for a norm-breaking third term as president.
Xi's motion nominating Li Qiang as premier was read out to the chamber on Saturday morning.
Journalists were asked to leave the chamber as deputies, mostly dressed in dark suits, marked their ballots in a tightly choreographed process.
Delegates later applauded as Xi ceremoniously deposited his votes in the ballot box while cheerful traditional music played from speakers.
An electronic screen in the hall displayed 2,936 votes for Li, with only three delegates voting against his appointment and eight abstaining.
Li later took an oath, swearing to be loyal to China's constitution and to "work hard to build a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and great modern socialist country".
His ascension had once seemed in doubt after his handling of the Shanghai lockdown, in which residents struggled to access food and medical care.
But Li's record, along with widespread protests last winter over Xi's zero-Covid policy, has been brushed aside as Xi cements his grip on Chinese politics.
Former top prosecutor Zhang Jun was appointed supreme court president at the same session on Saturday, while Ying Yong, who was party chief of Covid-hit Hubei province in the early months of the pandemic, was selected as procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
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