Former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang has died following a heart attack, Chinese state media reported Friday.
“Li was recently resting in Shanghai. On October 26, Li suffered a sudden heart attack and died at 00:10 on October 27 (Thursday at 16:10 GMT) after all life-saving measures failed. He died at the age of 68,” state news agency Xinhua reported.
Li Keqiang was replaced as Prime Minister by Li Qiang last March, five months after the congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and after having held this position for ten years.
Reforms hampered by Xi Jinping
This trained economist, fluent in English, was a fervent advocate of economic reforms. But he had seen his plans in this area hampered by the growing authority of President Xi Jinping.
He was praised for helping the country emerge relatively unscathed from the global financial crisis. But his mandate was also marked by the spectacular evolution of power in China, which went from a regime based on consensus, associated with former president Hu Jintao and his predecessors, to the omnipotence of Xi Jinping .
His replacement last March by Li Qiang, a former Shanghai party chief and Xi ally, was seen as a sign that his reform agenda had fallen into disuse as the government tightens its grip on a flagging Chinese economy. .
Rise under President Hu Jintao
Li Keqiang entered politics at a very young age as Communist Party secretary of a production brigade in 1976, the year of Mao’s death. During the early years of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, he studied law at the prestigious Peking University, later supplemented by a doctorate in rural economics.
Then, under the leadership of President Hu Jintao, he climbed the ranks of the Communist Youth League, the nursery of cadres, and successively took charge of the provinces of Henan (center), one of the most populous in the country, and Liaoning (northeast), an industrial stronghold.
When he ruled Henan from 1999 to 2003, the authorities of this province systematically obstructed the work of non-governmental organizations and journalists to shed light on a huge scandal of blood contaminated by the AIDS virus.
Away from the cameras, however, Li had become known for his critical sense, a diplomatic cable published in 2010 by Wikileaks revealing in particular that he doubted the reliability of Chinese economic statistics. Reputedly competent, but not very charismatic, Li Keqiang became number two in the CCP during the 18th party congress in 2012.