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Report: China to get 4 new vice premiers to oversee Xi's priorities

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Report: China to get 4 new vice premiers to oversee Xi's priorities

China is likely to have four new vice premiers after the National People's Congress confirms their appointments on March 5 during the annual meeting.

Three of the four vice premiers are expected to oversee President Xi Jinping's top priorities: poverty alleviation, environmental protection and preventing economic risks, the South China Morning Post reported March 2.

Former Guangdong party chief and Politburo member Hu Chunhua is expected to lead Xi's poverty alleviation campaign, which aims to have no Chinese national living under the poverty line by 2020. Hu might also take charge of agriculture, forestry, water resources and tourism, and possibly trade and commerce, SCMP reported.

Han Zheng, a member of the party's innermost Politburo Standing Committee and previously the party boss of Shanghai, is likely to become executive vice premier due to his seniority. "Han Zheng has been considered the front-runner to be the vice premier overseeing environment protection," a Beijing-based SCMP source said.

Liu He, Xi's top economic adviser and a Politburo member, is expected to take on the task of preventing economic risks as head of the general office of the party's Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs.

Sun Chunlan will likely become the only female vice premier in the cabinet, also known as the State Council, and will be expected to oversee science, education, culture, healthcare, sports, news and publications.

Barring last-minute surprises, the four vice-premiers are expected to implement the road map Xi laid out at the party's national congress in October 2017. Xi has set out to transform China into a "moderately well-off society" by 2020 and to a fully developed nation in economic, technological and military terms by 2050.

Realizing a "moderately well-off society" originally focused on doubling China's per capita GDP between 2010 and 2020, but Xi has added "three critical battles" as success benchmarks: lifting all people in mainland China out of poverty, controlling pollution and preventing major economic risks, said the report.

China's cabinet is to undergo a five-yearly leadership reshuffle. Premier Li Keqiang is likely to renew a second term, but his four deputies will either retire or be promoted, the SCMP report said.