Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, once seen as reform-minded contender to the country’s top leadership role, died of a sudden heart attack early Friday in Shanghai, state media reported.
He was 68 years old.
Li, who was nominally China’s No. 2 leader until late last year, served as the country’s premier – traditionally in charge of the economy – for a decade from 2013 to March this year under strongman leader Xi Jinping.
In his final year in power, the Peking University-educated economist had been a strong voice warning of challenges to China’s economy amid widespread Covid-19 lockdowns.
He backed efforts to boost employment and maintain economic stability.
Li, known to use his English language skills on occasion in appearances outside the mainland, was seen as representing a different approach to China’s relations with the world, at a time when the country has grown increasingly isolated.
“China and the United States have common interests,” Li said in response to CNN’s question at his annual press conference in March 2021. “The two countries need to put more energy on their common ground and expand converging interests.”
Li, a highly educated technocrat with degrees in both law and economics who was considered friendly to the private sector, was seen to have an increasingly diverging economic policy stance from Xi, who tightened party control over the economy.
Li’s time in the top echelons of China’s Communist Party came to a close last October, when he was not named to the party’s Central Committee during a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle that saw Xi surround himself with key allies.
Then 67, Li was one year short of the unofficial retirement age for senior Chinese Communist Party leaders.
He was succeeded as premier by former Shanghai party chief and Xi loyalist Li Qiang.
This is a breaking story, more to come.
Source: CNN
