Vice-president Li Yuanchao draws subdued welcome
Lacklustre welcome for Li Yuanchao perhaps reflects his less elevated status than predecessor
Yesterday's announcement that Li Yuanchao, a top ally of former president Hu Jintao , had been appointed vice-president was a much more low-key affair than when Xi Jinping, the new president, got the job five years ago.
Li, who failed to land a seat on the Communist Party's powerful Politburo Standing Committee last year, received tepid applause before sitting down somewhat awkwardly after bowing, blank-faced, to around 2,600 National People's Congress deputies in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
A day short of five years before, Xi was greeted with a bear hug from the man he succeeded, Zeng Qinghong, before shaking hands with Hu. Thunderous and lengthy applause followed.
Yesterday, Xinjiang regional party chief Zhang Chunxian, sitting to Li's right on the second row of the presidium, stretched out and shook hands with him, under the table. Meng Jianzhu , the top security official, and Chongqing party secretary Sun Zhengcai then shook hands with Li, also under the table.
Compared with his three immediate predecessors, Li, 62, will be more junior in the ruling hierarchy, wield less clout in the political arena and be less influential in decision-making.
However, he will still play various roles in state affairs, including a largely ceremonial role in foreign affairs, and be one of Beijing's top officials in charge of Hong Kong and Macau affairs.
Li is a Politburo member while his predecessors, Hu, Zeng and Xi, were all members of the smaller, inner-most Politburo Standing Committee. He is the first person not a member of the Politburo Standing Committee to be appointed vice-president since 1993, when top banker and non-communist Rong Yiren was vice-president to Jiang Zemin .