Former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang (2013-2023) died following a heart attack, state media reported on Friday, October 27.

“Li was recently resting in Shanghai. On October 26, Li suffered a sudden heart attack and died at 12:10 a.m. on October 27 [Thursday at 6:10 p.m. PST] after all life-saving measures failed. He died at the age of 68,” explained the New China news agency.

Li Keqiang was replaced as premier by Li Qiang in March 2023, five months after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress and after serving in the role for ten years.

A reform program that has fallen into disuse

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.

Li Keqiang had overseen China’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the first cases of which were detected in the city of Wuhan. Unprecedented controls were then imposed, further locking down the country with most international travel halted for three years and access to major cities closed for extended periods.

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. .

Competent but not very charismatic

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.

Off camera, however, Li had become known for his critical thinking, with 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. He was excluded from the standing committee during a party congress in October 2022, although he had two years in office. less than the informal retirement age of 70.