Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang dies at 68

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27th Oct, 2023. 09:42 am
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Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang dies at 68.
His passing left some Chinese intellectuals and members of the liberal elite in shock.
Li served as premier and head of China’s cabinet for a decade under President Xi Jinping.

Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who passed away due to a heart attack at the age of 68, on October 27, just ten months after retiring from a decade-long tenure in office, had once been considered a prominent contender for leadership within the Communist Party. However, in recent years, his influence waned.

Li, an accomplished economist, advocated for a more open market economy and supply-side reforms, a concept known as “Likonomics.” Regrettably, this approach was never fully implemented.

State broadcaster reported, “Comrade Li Keqiang, while resting in Shanghai in recent days, experienced a sudden heart attack on October 26 and, despite all-out efforts to revive him, passed away in Shanghai at ten minutes past midnight on October 27.”

The news of his passing elicited an outpouring of grief and shock on Chinese social media. Some government websites turned black-and-white as an official sign of mourning, and the Weibo microblogging platform transformed its “like” button into a “mourn” icon shaped like a chrysanthemum.

Li served as premier and head of China’s cabinet for a decade under President Xi Jinping, until stepping down from all political positions in March.

The leader who spearheaded transformative economic reforms in China in August 2022, while paying his respects at a statue of Deng Xiaoping, Li made a solemn promise: “Reform and opening up will not stop. The Yangtze and Yellow River will not reverse course.”

This speech went viral but was later censored on Chinese social media, as it was widely seen as a coded criticism of Xi’s policies.

Li gained attention in 2020 when he sparked a debate on poverty and income inequality by stating that 600 million people in the increasingly affluent nation earned less than $140 per month.

His passing left some Chinese intellectuals and members of the liberal elite in shock, with some suggesting it marked the end of an era.

Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist at the Australian National University, said, “Li will probably be remembered as an advocate for the freer market and for the have-nots, but most of all, he will be remembered for what could have been.”

According to Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, figures like Li no longer exist in Chinese politics.

Li, though less influential than his immediate predecessors as premier, Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao, was sidelined due to the constraints he faced under Xi’s leadership.

Adam Ni, an independent China political analyst, described Li as “a premier who stood powerless as China took a sharp turn away from reform and opening.”

Li was praised as “a calm and tough wall-breaker,” highlighting his hard work and determination in advocating for economic reforms in a 2014 state media profile.

Chinese state media also emphasized Li’s frequent visits to disaster sites and his easy rapport with ordinary people.

Some social media users referred to a song called “Sorry it wasn’t you” as a veiled reference to Xi, similar to the song that went viral around the death of former President Jiang Zemin in November the previous year before being censored.

Li’s public appearances were limited in retirement, with his last known sighting during an August private visit to the Mogao Grottoes in northwest China, where he appeared in good spirits.

Li was born in Anhui province, a region of modest means in eastern China, where his father held an official position, and where he, too, worked in the fields during the Cultural Revolution.

He studied law at Peking University, where he associated with pro-democracy advocates.

An English speaker, Li was immersed in the intellectual and political fervor of the reform era under Deng Xiaoping. However, this period was cut short by the military suppression of the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Li joined the Communist Party’s Youth League, a platform with reformist leanings after graduation. He rose through the ranks of the Youth League while earning a master’s degree in law and an economics doctorate under the guidance of Professor Li Yining, a prominent proponent of market reforms.

Li’s political career included roles as a provincial leader in Henan, a poor and restless rural region in central China, where he faced allegations of a crackdown following an AIDS scandal.

He also served as the party chief of Liaoning, a province striving to attract investment and transform itself into a modern industrial hub.

His political mentor was Hu Jintao, a former president associated with a political faction loosely connected to the Youth League. However, when Xi assumed leadership of the party in 2012, he took steps to dismantle this faction.

Li is survived by his wife, Cheng Hong, a professor of English, and their daughter.

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Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang dies at 68

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