(Beijing) Former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang died at age 68 following a heart attack, Chinese state media reported Friday.
“Comrade Li Keqiang was recently resting in Shanghai. On October 26, he had a sudden heart attack and died at 12:10 a.m. on October 27 (Thursday at 12:10 p.m. Eastern Time) after all life-saving measures failed,” the agency reported. New China Press.
Popular political figure, Li Keqiang was replaced as prime minister by Li Qiang last March although he had held this position since 2013, after having been vice-premier for five years.
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 in this area.
His mandate was also marked by the evolution of the political system in China, initially based on consensus, but which moved to a much more personal power under Xi Jinping.
The replacement of Li Keqiang by Li Qiang, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shanghai and Xi Jinping’s confidant, was seen as a sign that his reform program had fallen into disuse at a time when the government is tightening its control. hold on a Chinese economy that is losing momentum.
The symbol of a bygone era
Li Keqiang entered politics at a young age as the Communist Party chief of a production brigade in 1976 — the year Mao Tse-tung, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, died in 1949.
During the early years of Deng Xiaoping’s liberal 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 party cadres, and successively took charge of the provinces of Henan (center), one of the most populous in the country. country, and Liaoning (north-east), an industrial bastion.
When he ruled Henan in the early 2000s, the authorities of this province systematically obstructed the work of non-governmental organizations and Chinese journalists to shed light on a huge scandal of blood contaminated by the AIDS virus.
Away from the cameras, Li Keqiang, however, became known for his critical sense, with a diplomatic cable published in 2010 by WikiLeaks revealing in particular that he doubted the reliability of Chinese economic statistics.
Perceived in China as a competent politician, particularly in economic matters, Li Keqiang became number two in the CCP during the 18e party congress in 2012.
He then became Xi Jinping’s prime minister from 2013 to 2023.
“There was always the feeling that Li Keqiang was the last bastion of reason and the heart” in an era that had once again become “ideological” in China, responded Friday on the social network X (formerly Twitter) the historian Jeremiah Jenne, who lives in Beijing.