'Li Keqiang's Mentor' Renowned Chinese Economist Li Ning Passes Away

Li Yining, known as the economic mentor of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Honorary Dean of the Guanghua School of Management (Business School) at Peking University, passed away at the age of 92.

According to local media such as Beijing Daily on the 27th, Honorary Dean Li Yining passed away in Beijing due to illness on that day.

Liying, Honorary Dean of Guanghua School of Management (Business School), Peking University (Photo by Baidu)

Born in 1930 in Nanjing, he graduated from the Department of Economics at Peking University in 1955. After teaching students, he served as a standing committee member of the 7th, 8th, and 9th National People's Congress, deputy director of the Finance and Economic Committee, and deputy director of the Legal Committee from 1988 to 2002. Later, he also served as a standing committee member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee's Economic Committee.

He was especially known for being the first in China to propose the theory of "shareholding reform," advocating for changes to the planned economy's collective ownership model. He led the drafting of China's Securities Law and Securities Investment Fund Law, and authored many works including "Theory of Private Economy," "The Reasoning of China's Economic Reform," "The Unbalanced Chinese Economy," "China's Economic Reform and Shareholding System," and "Shareholding System and Modern Market Economy."

The late scholar was also famous for being the academic advisor to current Premier Li Keqiang when he earned his master's and doctoral degrees in economics at Peking University Graduate School. In 2013, during the early years of President Xi Jinping's administration, he urged the fostering of private enterprises, stating that "whether private enterprises can exert their capabilities will be the key to China's future economic development."

In 2016, at the age of 86, he attracted attention by advocating for China's structural reform through writing 10,000 characters a day. At that time, he emphasized that the government must appropriately advance and retreat for the market economy to function properly, and that the economy must seek new opportunities to create employment.