BEIJING. China’s former Premier Li Keqiang, who held a significant role as the country’s top economic official for a decade, passed away on Friday at the age of 68 due to a heart attack.
Li, who served as China’s second-highest leader from 2013 to 2023 and was a prominent advocate for private businesses, had seen his authority diminished as President Xi Jinping consolidated power, tightening his grip on the economy and society.
According to CCTV, Li had recently been resting in Shanghai before suffering a heart attack on Thursday. He passed away at 12:10 a.m. on Friday.
A proficient English-speaking economist, Li was once considered a contender to succeed former Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013. However, he was overlooked in favor of Xi Jinping. Xi’s consolidation of power left Li and others on the party’s ruling seven-member Standing Committee with limited influence.
Despite being a champion of improving conditions for entrepreneurs, Li’s efforts faced headwinds as the ruling party under Xi increased the dominance of state-owned industries and tightened control over various sectors, causing unease among foreign companies.
Li was removed from the Standing Committee during a party congress in October 2022 and officially left office in March 2023, although he was still two years away from the informal retirement age of 70.
On the same day, Xi Jinping secured a third five-year term as the party leader, defying the tradition of his predecessors stepping down after a decade. This marked a shift towards centralized leadership and potentially extended Xi’s tenure for life. Li Qiang, the party secretary for Shanghai, assumed the No. 2 position but lacked Li Keqiang’s national-level experience.
Li Keqiang took office in 2013 when the ruling party was grappling with a slowdown in the construction and export booms that had fueled double-digit growth in the previous decade. He vowed to promote growth based on domestic consumption and service industries, emphasizing the need to open state-dominated sectors and encourage state banks to lend more to entrepreneurs.
Li was perceived as a potential figure to revive market-oriented reforms akin to those initiated by then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s. However, he was known for his easygoing style, which contrasted with the forceful impatience of Zhu Rongji, the premier from 1998 to 2003, who implemented far-reaching reforms that resulted in the removal of millions of jobs from state-owned industries.
Li was believed to have supported the “China 2030” report, jointly released by the World Bank and a Cabinet research body in 2012, advocating substantial changes to reduce state industry dominance and promote market forces.
Li’s tenure witnessed a boost in the nationalistic approach and a tightening of control over information, leading to the closure of independent think tanks such as the Unirule Institute.
Under Xi’s leadership, the government intensified anti-corruption efforts and imprisoned hundreds of officials, but their commitment to economic reforms wavered. Key market-oriented changes were left unimplemented, and the influence of state-owned banks and companies grew stronger.
China’s rapid increase in debt, both by companies, households, and local governments, added to economic risks. In 2020, Beijing implemented tighter controls on real estate debt, contributing to a significant decline in economic growth, which reached a low of 3% in 2022, marking a three-decade low.
Li Keqiang’s tenure was marked by several disasters, leading to the moniker “Three Fires Li.” However, he escaped personal blame despite these unfortunate events.
Li was also at the helm of China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which involved stringent control measures, international travel restrictions, and city lockdowns.
In one of his last official acts, Li announced a relaxation of anti-virus controls in November 2022 after the economy experienced a 2.6% contraction in the second quarter of that year.
Li was born in 1955 in Anhui province, and his early political career saw him rising through the ranks of the Communist Youth League. He earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1994 from Peking University.
Li is survived by his wife, Cheng Hong, a professor of English, and their daughter.
