10 facts about Li Keqiang, former Chinese premier and Xi Jinping ally

On October 27, former Premier of the State Council of CHINA Li Keqiang died at the age of 69. RBK has compiled key facts about the politician who served as the second-in-command in China for ten years. Li Keqiang was born on July 1, 1955, in Anhui Province to a government official . Li's youth coincided with the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976. After finishing school, he, like many of his peers, was sent to work for several years on a collective farm in a remote village. In 1976, Li joined the Communist Party of China and became secretary of the local party branch. Despite his humble origins, in 1978 Li entered the prestigious Peking University, where he studied law. During these years, he became acquainted with Western liberal ideas and also began speaking English fluently. In 1982, Li Keqiang became secretary of the university branch of the Communist Youth League of China (CYCL), and a year later, he joined its national secretariat and became a protégé of Hu Jintao. By 1993, Li had become the first secretary of the CYCL . He also earned a doctorate in economics.

Li Keqiang (second from right) with his classmates at Peking University (Photo: Peking University)

A rapid rise through the ranks of the KSMK allowed Li to ascend to a new level in the political hierarchy. By 1998, he had already become the HEAD of the Henan provincial government in the central-eastern part of the country. In this position, he significantly strengthened the region's economy, raising it from 28th to 18th place in GDP. However, Li became embroiled in a scandal over the authorities' attempts to conceal the mass HIV infection of the local population due to poorly organized blood collection. In 2004, Li transferred to the government of another Chinese province, Liaoning, where he focused on developing transportation. At the time, the politician criticized China's official GDP statistics for their "artificiality" and believed it was necessary to focus on electricity consumption trends, as well as rail freight volumes and bank loans, as real indicators of economic growth. Since 2010, The Economist newspaper has introduced the informal "Li Keqiang Index," which incorporates these metrics to measure China's economy.

Li Keqiang at the power control center during a visit to State Grid Corporation of China in January 2023. (Photo: Gao Jie / XinHua / Global Look Press)Li Keqiang inspecting CNR in Jilin Province in April 2015. (Photo: Ding Lin / ZUMAPRESS / Global Look Press)Li Keqiang at the construction site of a railway station in Changsha County, Hunan Province, in July 2014. (Photo: Ma Zhancheng / Xinhua / Global Look Press)

His close relationship with Hu Jintao, who became General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2002, helped Li Keqiang achieve another career breakthrough and enter the national government. In 2007, he became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee, and in 2008, Li was elected Vice Premier of the State Council. In 2010, Li Keqiang was also appointed Vice Chairman of the CPC Military Commission.
  Many saw Li Keqiang as Hu Jintao's successor as leader of the Communist Party, but he ultimately yielded to Xi Jinping, whom party elders considered a more compromise option. Li became Premier of the State Council  , a position he held for 10 years, from 2013 to 2023.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang (left) and Vice President Xi Jinping before a meeting of the National People's Congress in March 2012. (Photo: Feng Li/Getty Images)

Although Li Keqiang was formally the second-in-command in the country, he soon found himself in Xi Jinping's shadow and wielded significantly less influence than his predecessors. Moreover, Li and Xi never formed a strong partnership, and their views often diverged : while Li advocated economic liberalization, Xi advocated greater state control. And during the pandemic,During the covid-19 pandemic, Li called for easing lockdown restrictions to maintain economic growth, while Xi pursued a "zero tolerance" policy that saw entire businesses shut down if an employee tested positive.

Li Keqiang meets with medical workers at a hospital in Wuhan, January 27, 2020. (Photo: Li Tao / Xinhua / Global Look Press)

During his premiership, Li also focused on overcoming the consequences of the 2008 global financial crisis and reducing the debt burden. To this end, the authorities decided to slow GDP growth and reorient investment to avoid economic overheating. The Chinese government's policy became informally known as "Liconomics ," named after Li Keqiang. Perhaps due to his humble origins, Li Keqiang placed great emphasis on addressing inequality in Chinese society. In 2020, he lamented that as many as 600 million Chinese earn less than $140 per month.

Li Keqiang inspects crops in Hubei Province during an inspection tour in December 2012. (Photo: Huang Jingwen / ZUMAPRESS / Global Look Press) Li Keqiang meets with workers of Yunnan Tin Group in June 2010. (Photo: Huang Jingwen / ZUMAPRESS / Global Look Press) Li Keqiang talks with villagers in Yunnan Province in June 2010. (Photo: Huang Jingwen / Xinhua / GLobal Look Press)

In October 2022, Li was removed from the Politburo Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee, despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70. In March 2023, Li was dismissed as Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. He was succeeded by Li Qiang, a close ally of Xi Jinping since his time in the Zhejiang provincial government. On October 26, 2023, Li Keqiang suffered a heart attack while in Shanghai. Despite medical efforts, he died on the night of October 27. He was 68 years old. He is survived by his wife and daughter.
Vice Premier Li Keqiang with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Beijing, March 2010 (Photo: Huang Jingwen / Xinhua / ZUMA / Global Look Press) With German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the presentation of driverless cars at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, July 2018 (Photo: Fabrizio Bensch / dpa / Global Look Press) With former Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana, September 2016 (Photo: Alex Castro / Courtesy of Cubadebate /REUTERS )With Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, September 2019 (Photo: Pavel Golovkin / Reuters)With US President Barack Obama before a group photo at the 27th ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 2015 (Photo: Jorge Silva / Reuters)Russian and Chinese Prime Ministers Dmitry Medvedev and Li Keqiang at the Pavlovsk Museum-Reserve in September 2019 (Photo: Global Look Press)With Belarusian President ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO in Beijing in July 2013 (Photo: Andy Wong / Getty Images)