Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang (李克強), who gained a reputation as a reformer, but later found himself sidelined by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), yesterday died of a heart attack just months after stepping down as the nation’s No. 2 official.
He was 68.
Li passed away in Shanghai after all rescue efforts failed, a statement posted on the government’s Web site said. His death sparked a huge outpouring of grief on China’s tightly controlled Internet, with most comments expressing shock and sadness over his passing.
Photo: AFP
“Rest in peace, people’s premier,” one top comment said on Sina Weibo, where the news was viewed about 1.3 billion times.
In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council offered its condolences to Li’s family. It added that it would continue to keep a close eye on related developments in China.
A trained economist who once rivaled Xi for the nation’s top job, Li championed pro-market reforms and extolled the benefits of a more liberal economic vision while steering the world’s second-largest economy through a trade war with the US, a property crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, his influence steadily declined over his decade as head of government, with Xi taking over key responsibilities traditionally reserved for the premier.
Xi’s push to shape economic policy was a harbinger of a bigger shakeup in the Chinese Communist Party that played out last year, when he secured an unprecedented third term. Despite being eligible to stay on the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, Li was left off China’s most powerful body and replaced as premier by a Xi ally, Li Qiang (李強).
“Some are suggesting that Li [Keqiang] is a symbol of a bygone reform era,” said Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. “He is more a symbol of the Xi Jinping era, in which putative reformers like Li were sidelined and stripped of agency, even though he was ranked number two in the party hierarchy.”
China’s state media published an official obituary, commending Li Keqiang’s work as premier, including promoting economic reform and resolving problems relating to people’s livelihoods — such as job creation, education and housing.
It also highlighted his work under Xi’s leadership and noted his continued backing of Xi after stepping down as premier, saying he “firmly supported” anti-corruption efforts.
In 2020, Li Keqiang set off a nationwide debate on poverty alleviation when he reminded the public that two-fifths of China’s population earned just 1,000 yuan (US$137) a month on average.
“It’s not even enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city,” he said at the annual national parliament meeting in May.
Internet users paid tribute to Li Keqiang, with many highlighting his comments on poverty.
Others shared his remark that “once China’s door is opened, it will never be closed again” — a statement that stands in contrast with the nation’s widening divisions with the US and Europe as Xi’s power expands.
Additional reporting by CNA
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