BEIJING (AFP) – Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang has died after suffering a heart attack at the age of 68, state media reported Friday.
A reform-minded bureaucrat, Li was once tipped as the country’s future leader only to be eclipsed by President Xi Jinping, under whom he served as premier for 10 years.
Xinhua news agency said Li had a sudden heart attack on Thursday, and passed away in the early hours of Friday in Shanghai, where he had been resting.
During his time as premier, Li cultivated an image as a more modern apparatchik compared to his stiffer colleagues.
A career bureaucrat who spoke fluent English, he had voiced support for economic reforms during his time in office.
Li, the son of a minor party official in eastern China’s poor Anhui province, was sent to the countryside to work as a manual labourer during China’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution.
He went on to gain a law degree from Peking University, where classmates say he embraced Western and liberal political theory, translating a book on the law by a British judge.
But he became more orthodox after joining the ranks of officialdom in the mid-80s, working as a bureaucrat while his former classmates protested in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Li rose to become the party’s top official in Henan, and in Liaoning province in the northeast – both of which saw economic growth – before being promoted to become a deputy to then-premier Wen Jiabao.
Li was praised for helping to steer the country through the global financial crisis relatively unscathed.
When Li left office, the Chinese economy was experiencing some of its lowest growth in decades, battered by a Covid-induced slowdown and a crisis in the housing market.
But in his final speech as outgoing premier, Li struck a bullish tone, saying China’s economy was “staging a steady recovery and demonstrating vast potential and momentum for further growth”.
“Overcoming great difficulties and challenges, we succeeded in maintaining overall stable economic performance.”
