Li is considered part of the "New Zhijiang Army", the party faction of Xi Jinping, the CCP general secretary and top leader since 2012.

[13] The Economist reported in 2023 that "many such towns became speculative hotspots for housing developers, and the kinds of businesses they were supposed to cultivate sometimes failed to take off".

[18][19] He oversaw increasing foreign investment in the city, including the gigafactory of Tesla, Inc.[20] He has also implemented policies like lowering the threshold for internal migrants to obtain residency permits and creating five new towns to lessen the land supply shortage.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Li is one of the few people in the top leadership that wants China to introduce Western mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

[24] Effectively putting him on track to become the premier, observers speculated that the lack of Central Government experience would make him heavily dependent on support from Xi to run the State Council.

[26] Reuters reported on 3 March 2023, citing sources, that Li pushed for the quick relaxation of zero-COVID rules in late 2022, resisting pressure from Xi, who wanted to slow the pace of the reopening.

[32] Since becoming the premier, Li has attempted to reassure private entrepreneurs and restore confidence after the damage caused by zero-COVID restrictions, lifted in December 2022, and regulatory campaigns undertaken by the government; he also reportedly persuaded Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma to return to China after he spent a year overseas.

He also met many foreign business executives, including Tim Cook of Apple Inc. and Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, who made their first trip to China since the zero-COVID policy ended.

[34] In July 2023, China ended its increased regulatory efforts in the technology sector and Li met with representatives of major tech companies to convey the "strongest signal" in support of the industry.

[35]: 175  During a meeting of the State Council in August 2023, Li called for more efforts to reach China's annual growth target.

[40] In the same month, he also visited Shaanxi province, where he paid a trip to Shaanxi Fast Auto Drive Group, the ESWIN Technology Group, a manufacturer of semiconductors used in cars, and Western Superconducting Technologies, full-process producer of niobium-titanium ingot rods; he called on manufacturers to increase investments in research and development.

[41] In July 2024, during a symposium with heads of state-owned enterprises, private entrepreneurs and economists, he said China's economy was in "stable operation", while calling for "scientific policy decisions".

[42] In August 2024, during a meeting of the State Council, he called on China to introduce policies that are "tangible, effective and accessible to both the public and businesses".

[44] The same month, he visited Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Jiaxing in Zhejiang province, where he promised to "steadily expand" access to foreign-invested companies.

[45] In January 2025, Li visited Shandong province, where he called on officials to expand trade-in programmes to boost consumption, expand charging and battery-swapping infrastructure due to the increasing number of new electric vehicles, and accelerate in the building of infrastructure and livelihood projects, including sports venues and modern water networks.

[47] In the same month, during a meeting of the State Council, Li said China would adopt targeted policies to increase domestic consumption.

[53] Li addressed the World Economic Forum's 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, where he said China's economy remained on track and criticized efforts at "derisking".

[58] Li Qiang also met with Indonesian president Joko Widodo, vowing $21.7 billion new Chinese investment in Indonesia.

[63] In January 2024, Li Qiang visited Switzerland and Ireland, and he attended the annual meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos.

In April, Li invited Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to visit China.

Between May 26 and May 27, Li attended the China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit in Seoul, and met with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

[10] Li's wife Lin Huan is a retired civil servant, who previously worked in the transportation bureau of the Zhejiang provincial government.