China’s former premier Li Keqiang died of a heart attack on Friday at the age of 68, state media reported. His passing comes less than a year after stepping down from holding the second-most powerful position in China’s government.
Li had suffered heart failure on Thursday and passed away in the early hours of Friday after all rescue measures failed, according to Xinhua. He recently had been resting in Shanghai after stepping down as premier in March, Xinhua wrote.
Li’s death was the top trending topic on Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Weibo on Friday, with many people expressing their sadness and reminiscing about his efforts to boost entrepreneurship. Some users were sharing photos of Li visiting entrepreneurs and having coffee with startup founders.
An economist trained at the country’s prestigious Peking University, Li had championed policies aimed at boosting clean energy, affordable housing, entrepreneurship as well as cutting red tape to strengthen the private sector, Washington, D.C.-based research firm Brookings Institution wrote last year.
Born in 1955 in Anhui Province to a father who was a county-level government official, he rose through the ranks after serving as a party leader for Henan Province and Liaoning Province. In a conversation with an American diplomat that was subsequently leaked to the media, Li famously confessed that Liaoning Province’s gross domestic product figures were unreliable, and growth would be better measured by taking into account cargo activity, bank lending and electricity consumption. An unofficial index based on the three factors was later created and named after Li.
Li became premier in 2013, working for a decade alongside President Xi Jinping before being replaced in March by Xi’s close ally Li Qiang. The late Li was responsible for overseeing China’s economic development in his role, but he was later marginalized as policymaking became increasingly centralized under Xi.
Yet Li is still fondly remembered for speaking vocally about China’s economic inequality and supporting the private sector. In a 2020 speech, he memorably said that about 600 million people in China earned less than 1,000 yuan ($137 ) a month, and the government must prioritize improving people’s livelihoods after the coronavirus pandemic.