Liu He, a key economic adviser to China's President Xi Jinping, was elected by parliament Monday to be a vice premier, and vice central bank Gov. Yi Gang was chosen to take over the helm at the People's Bank of China.
Liu's promotion telegraphs Beijing's intention to press ahead with a clampdown on riskier financing, and a rapid build-up in debt to reduce systemic risks to the world's second-largest economy.
Liu, a Xi confidant, has a deep understanding of the country's economic issues and is an emerging star in Chinese politics. Having won a top Chinese economics study award in 2015 for his research on the global financial crisis, he is widely seen as masterminding Xi's supply-side reforms which are cutting excess factory capacity and pivoting the economy away from low-value industries.