China bids farewell to former Prime Minister Li Keqiang US earthquake monitoring station: magnitude 6.1 earthquake shakes Timor island

Countless citizens in China have said goodbye to the late former government leader Li Keqiang. On the way to the revolutionary cemetery in western Beijing on Thursday, hundreds of people lined the roadside, accompanied by many police officers, shouting “Head of Government, rest in peace” toward the convoy carrying Li’s body. .

Photos of the body circulated on Platform

Li Keqiang died on October 27 in Shanghai at the age of 68 from a heart attack. His body was taken to Beijing by special flight. After his death there was great sympathy in many places. In Hefei, east China’s Anhui province, where he grew up, people laid flowers at his former home.

The public’s sympathy went virtually unnoticed in state media in the days before the cremation. According to observers, the background could have been Beijing’s concern about the protests, as in earlier times they had flared up after the deaths of key politicians. On Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Platform X, Li Keqiang’s farewell was topic number one.

Li had been prime minister since 2013 and left office in March this year. The economist studied stood for a more open economic policy in China and was popular with many Chinese. However, state and party leader Xi Jinping stripped the government of much power, leaving Prime Minister Li more in Xi’s shadow.

(yam/sda/dpa)