'10-Year Second-in-Command' Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Dies at 68 (Comprehensive)

7 Months After Resigning as Prime Minister Last March

Li Keqiang, former Premier of the State Council of China who retired last March, died of heart disease on the 27th at the age of 68.

According to China Central Television (CCTV), Li suddenly suffered from heart disease the day before, received emergency treatment, but passed away from cardiac arrest at 0:10 a.m. on the 27th in Shanghai.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Born in 1955, Li earned his master's and doctoral degrees in economics from Peking University. He served as the First Secretary of the Communist Youth League (Gongqingtuan), Secretary and Governor of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, and Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee before becoming a member of the Politburo Standing Committee in 2007.

As a member of the Communist Youth League faction, a core faction within the Chinese Communist Party, he served as Vice Premier of the State Council from 2008 during the presidency of Hu Jintao, who belonged to the same faction. After Xi Jinping took office, Li held the position of Premier of the State Council, the second-highest post, for ten years from 2013 until March of this year.

During his tenure as Premier, he focused on addressing challenges such as government debt issues, trade tensions with the United States, and the spread of COVID-19. However, as the collective leadership system weakened under Xi Jinping's administration, Li, once a rival to Xi, was widely regarded as having limited room to maneuver. In April last year, when China was locking down Shanghai as part of its zero-COVID policy, he remarked that "excessive epidemic prevention measures should not disrupt logistics or hinder grain harvests due to restrictions on agricultural labor and materials," but his comments had little impact on actual policy.

The last time Li's activities were reported in local media was during the Two Sessions (Lianghui ? the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress) in March. Although a video of him visiting the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, circulated online in August, no related reports or social media posts have been found in local media or social networks.

He first visited South Korea in 1994 while serving as the First Secretary of the Communist Youth League, two years after the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China. He visited South Korea again in 2006 as Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee. In 2011, as Vice Premier of the State Council, he made consecutive visits to South Korea and North Korea.