BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday ensuring economic growth was the top priority for his government, pledging to fight graft, tackle vested interests and calling for an end to a cyber-hacking row with the United States.

Li’s first news conference as premier, at the close of the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament that confirmed his appointment, covered topics that have been the principal focus of recent government rhetoric, with a strong emphasis on the necessity of reform to deliver long-term economic stability.

BEIJING, March 17 (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
said on Sunday ensuring economic growth was the top priority for
his government, pledging to fight graft, tackle vested interests
and calling for an end to a cyber-hacking row with the United
States.

Li’s first news conference as premier, at the close of the
annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament that confirmed
his appointment, covered topics that have been the principal
focus of recent government rhetoric, with a strong emphasis on
the necessity of reform to deliver long-term economic stability.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Wang Yang, one of China’s best-known reformers who was passed over for promotion last year, is set to become one of four vice premiers, sources said, a role that will see his credentials for change tested to the full.

The largely rubber-stamp National People’s Congress, or parliament, will name the four vice premiers and cabinet ministers in a tightly scripted ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Saturday.

BEIJING (Reuters) – A reformist member of China’s decision-making Politburo, Li Yuanchao, is set to become the country’s vice president this week instead of a more senior and conservative official best known for keeping the media in check, sources said.

Li’s appointment would be a sign that new Communist Party leader and incoming president Xi Jinping’s clout is growing, a source with ties to the leadership said. Xi fended off a bid by influential former president Jiang Zemin to install propaganda tsar Liu Yunshan in the job, the source said.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will likely appoint savvy international dealmakers to run its giant sovereign wealth fund and Commerce Ministry in a soft power push to soothe fears over a planned spending spree to boost Beijing’s ownership of strategic global assets.

Securities regulator Guo Shuqing is tipped to take the helm at the $482 billion state investment vehicle, China Investment Corp (CIC) CIC.UL, and China’s chief trade representative, Gao Hucheng, is seen running the Commerce Ministry, two sources with leadership ties told Reuters.

BEIJING, March 7 (Reuters) – China will likely appoint savvy
international dealmakers to run its giant sovereign wealth fund
and Commerce Ministry in a soft power push to soothe fears over
a planned spending spree to boost Beijing’s ownership of
strategic global assets.

Securities regulator Guo Shuqing is tipped to take the helm
at the $482 billion state investment vehicle, China Investment
Corp (CIC), and China’s chief trade representative, Gao
Hucheng, is seen running the Commerce Ministry, two sources with
leadership ties told Reuters.

BEIJING, March 4 (Reuters) – Pan Yue, a high-profile
official with a history of taking on big state-owned interests,
has emerged as the front-runner to become China’s new
environment minister, sources said, amid growing public
discontent over worsening pollution in the country.

Pan, a former journalist, is tipped to take over from
career bureaucrat Zhou Shengxian when Premier-in-waiting Li
Keqiang forms his new cabinet during the annual session of
parliament which begins on Tuesday, three independent sources
familiar with the matter said.

BEIJING, March 4 (Reuters) – China is likely to split its
sprawling, scandal-plagued Railways Ministry into operations and
commercial arms, two sources said, part of an overhaul of the
bureaucracy as a new set of leaders takes charge in Beijing.

In other plans, the government is also likely to set up a
single regulator for food safety, although details are still
being finalised.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s ruling Communist Party will only be able to mark its 100th birthday in eight years time if officials can learn from the selfless sages of the past, party chief Xi Jinping said in remarks published on Sunday, taking another swipe at corruption.

Xi, who will take over the reins of state power from outgoing President Hu Jintao at this month’s annual full session of parliament, has made fighting pervasive graft a central theme since assuming the top job in the party and military in November.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China plans major bond market reform to raise the money the ruling Communist Party needs for a 40 trillion yuan ($6.4 trillion) urbanization program to buoy economic growth and close a chasm between the country’s urban rich and rural poor.

The Party aims to bring 400 million people to cities over the next decade as the new leadership of president-in-waiting Xi Jinping and premier-designate Li Keqiang seek to turn China into a wealthy world power with economic growth generated by an affluent consumer class.