China’s new premier Li Qiang completed his first overseas trip to Europe last week, but notably did not fly on a “special flight” as his predecessors did and declined to attend media questioning sessions. Li’s ranking in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is second only to that of Party leader Xi Jinping, but political observers believe that Li’s power may have been restricted to remain humble to his superiors.
Mouthpiece CCTV highlighted the details of Li’s visit to Europe, twice mentioning “chartered plane” in the same news report on June 19 when describing how Li left Beijing and arrived at Berlin Brandenburg Airport on June 18, German time.
