China’s former premier, Li Keqiang, has died at the age of 68, according to Chinese state media. Li had a heart attack and died in Shanghai early on Friday, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.
“Comrade Li Keqiang, while resting in Shanghai in recent days, experienced a sudden heart attack on Oct 26 and after all-out efforts to revive him failed, died in Shanghai at ten minutes past midnight on Oct 27,” the state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Observers said Li would be remembered as an advocate for a freer market and China’s more impoverished citizens, but also as a symbol of the political alternative sidelined by the autocratic rise of Xi Jinping.
Li was premier – the second-highest position in China’s political system – for a decade from 2013 until he was replaced by Li Qiang in March.
He was born in July 1955 in Dingyuan County in eastern China’s Anhui province. He graduated from the Law Department of Beijing University in 1982 and also received higher degrees in Economics.
From 1998 to 2004, Li served as the governor of Henan and the province’s party secretary, becoming the youngest provincial governor in China.
Li later earned a spot in the top echelon of the party’s central leadership, the Politburo Standing Committee.
