Sudden death: China’s former premier Li Keqiang is dead

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Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has died. He suffered a sudden heart attack on Thursday and died at 12.10am (local time) in Shanghai on Friday after failed rescue attempts, state news agency Xinhua reported. Li Keqiang resigned as prime minister in March after ten years. He was 68 years old.

Li Keqiang, the son of a civil servant, was born on July 1, 1955 in Dingyuan, Anhui Province. Like other intellectuals, he had to move to the countryside in 1974, at the end of the Cultural Revolution. One of only three percent of all applicants to survive, he studied law at Peking University and received his PhD in economics. In 1983, Li Keqiang worked in the Communist Youth League under his later sponsor, state and party leader Hu Jintao.

But his rise to the top in Beijing started with a false start. Outgoing President Hu Jintao actually wanted to turn his protégé into a ‘strong man’. However, the plan failed because of the “Shanghai faction” around his powerful predecessor Jiang Zemin, who instead established Xi Jinping as the new leader. Li Keqiang stayed behind, but at least became prime minister.

There had been rumors for years

His luck continued to fail him as the protection of his sponsor Hu Jintao waned. Xi Jinping effectively emasculated the government by having party working groups and committees take over government work under his leadership. So Li Keqiang became a “lame duck”. There have been rumors about his health for years. During his foreign visits, long rest breaks always had to be built into the program, diplomats report in confidential conversations.

In 2020, Li Keqiang struggled to combat the downturn caused by the Corona crisis by increasing government spending. “Extraordinary measures for unusual times,” he called it. Moreover, the trade war with the US caused problems for the second largest economy. Li Keqiang warned the People’s Congress at the time, saying, “At present and in the near future, China will face challenges like never before.”

Source: Blick