At the age of 68, former Chinese premier Li Keqiang passed away from a heart attack.
Despite “all-out” efforts to revive him, he passed away on Friday, according to state media, 10 minutes past midnight.
Li was previously considered the nation’s future leader, but President Xi Jinping surpassed him.
Despite being a qualified economist and occupying the second-highest post in China, he had become increasingly alienated within the country’s elite leadership in recent times.
He was the only senior official now in office who wasn’t a member of Mr. Xi’s supporters.
Ian Chong, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie China think tank, said that Li’s passing “means the loss of a prominent moderating voice within the senior levels of the Chinese Communist Party, with no one apparently able to take over the mantle.”
On Chinese social media, people are mourning his passing in great numbers and expressing shock and grief; however, it appears that comments on many of the posts have been disabled.On the Chinese social networking platform Weibo, a commenter said, “This is too sudden, he was so young.” Another person compared losing “a pillar of our home” to his passing.
Li was regarded as one of his generation’s most intelligent political figures. Soon after the institutions were reopened following Mao’s Cultural Revolution—during which it is estimated that millions Chinese people died—he got admitted to the esteemed Peking University Law School.
Outside of China, he is most well-known for the Li Keqiang index, an informal gauge of China’s economic development that The Economist first used, BBC reports.
Born in Hefei, Anhui province in 1955, Li initially rose through the ranks of Chinese politics through his involvement in the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), serving as its first secretary from 1993 to 1998.
From 1998 to 2004, Li served as the governor of Henan and the province’s party secretary. From 2004 to 2007 he served as the Party Secretary of Liaoning, the top political office in the province. From 2008 to 2013, Li served as the first-ranked vice premier under then-premier Wen Jiabao, overseeing a broad portfolio which included economic development, price controls, finance, climate change, and macroeconomic management.
Initially seen as a candidate for becoming the paramount leader, Li instead assumed the post of premier in 2013, and facilitated the Chinese government’s shifting of priorities from export-led growth to a greater focus on internal consumption. During his term Li headed the State Council and was one of the leading figures behind China’s Financial and Economic Affairs, Foreign Affairs, National Security and Deepening Reforms. Additionally, Li and his cabinet initiated the Made in China 2025 strategic plan in May 2015. He was succeeded as premier by Li Qiang in March 2023.
Given his Youth League experience, Li was generally considered a political ally of former leader Hu Jintao and a member of the Tuanpai faction. Economically seen as advocating reform and liberalization, Li has been described as representing the more pragmatic and technocratic side of China’s leadership. There has been speculation that Li may have been sidelined by Xi Jinping for reasons of power consolidation.
Li died on 27 October 2023 from a heart attack, after just a few months leaving office.
Photo> Bruegel
