Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, once seen as a reform-minded contender to the country’s top leadership role, died of a sudden heart attack early Friday in Shanghai, state media reported.
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.
During his time in the role, Li navigated the world’s second-largest economy through a challenging period of rising technology and trade tensions with the United States, mounting government debt and unemployment, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
In his final year in power, the economist by training 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.
As the news of Li’s death broke Friday morning, social media users circulated a line from Li’s annual address to China’s rubber stamp parliament in 2022, where he pledged that, “No matter how the international environment may change, China will keep the course of wider openness.”
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 ties with the world, at a time when the country’s relations with the West have grown increasingly strained.
“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 is also remembered for his focus on addressing societal ills – with social media users on Friday also pointing to his 2020 comments noting that China still had 600 million people with a monthly income of 1,000 yuan ($137).
Those remarks came at a time when China was touting its success in lifting millions out of poverty as a point of national pride.
Li, a highly educated technocrat with degrees in law and economics, was considered friendly to the private sector. He was seen to have an increasingly diverging economic policy stance from Xi, who tightened party control over the economy.
