Li Keqiang: former Chinese premier benched by Xi passes away at age 68

 Li Keqiang: former Chinese premier benched by Xi passes away at age 68

At the age of 68, former Chinese premier Li Keqiang passed away after a heart attack.

Li was once seen as the nation's future leader, but President Xi Jinping, who has strengthened his hold on power recently, ignored him.

He was "resting" in Shanghai on Thursday when he suddenly had a heart attack, according to state media.

Despite "all-out efforts" to resuscitate him, he died dead on Friday 10 minutes past midnight, according to state television CCTV.

Li was the only senior official in office at the conclusion of Mr. Xi's last term as premier who wasn't a member of his loyalist group.

Li was regarded as one of the most intelligent political figures of his generation and was the second most powerful member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party until he retired last year. He was admitted to the esteemed Peking University Law School shortly after the universities were reopened in the wake of Mao's disastrous Cultural Revolution.

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On Chinese social media, Li's passing is being lamented by many, many of whom are expressing astonishment.

On the Chinese social networking platform Weibo, a commenter said, "This is too sudden, he was so young." Another person compared losing "a pillar of our home" to his passing.

The individual who "told it as it is," Mr. Li, was the son of a local politician and came from a lowly background. He was born in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui in Dingyuan County in July 1955.

As he advanced through the ranks, he was appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, the party's highest leadership body, and subsequently became the youngest provincial governor in Chinese history.

There was a rumor that he was being prepared to replace the late leader Hu Jintao.

He was seen by many as Mr. Hu's protege. Before his resignation in March of this year, he was the last Hu administration nominee to hold a position on the Politburo Standing Committee. The Hu years were seen as a period of greater acceptance of new ideas and of opening up to the outside world.

Li was renowned for his pragmatic approach to economic policy, emphasizing the creation of affordable housing and closing the wealth gap.

Professor Bert Hofman of the National University of Singapore said of the deceased, "He was a very enthusiastic open man really actually strove to get China ahead and promoted open dialogue with people from all walks of life," on the BBC's Newsday program.

He was an economist who gained notoriety for "telling it like it is" in a Party ruled by engineers by openly admitting China's economic issues in an effort to find answers.

His "Likonomics" economic strategy, which combined structural reform and debt reduction, attempted to lessen China's reliance on debt-fueled development and move the country's economy in the direction of self-sustainability.

But by 2016, pieces on "Likonomics" had been replaced by suggestions for supply-side adjustments and microeconomic reforms in Mr. Xi's economic theories in the party's mouthpiece, People's Daily.

China's zero-Covid dilemma hampered his last months in government.

He noted that the economy was under tremendous strain during its worst moments and urged policymakers to exercise caution so as not to allow limitations to stifle development. He even made an appearance in public without a mask before China reversed its zero-Covid policy.

However, there was no contest when cadres had to pick between Mr. Xi's directive to maintain zero-Covid with strict discipline and his mandate to save the economy.