Former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Beijing's second most powerful politician in the last decade, dies

His last major public speech was last March to open the first session of China's annual political conclave.. Prime Minister Li Keqiang, as he had done so many other times, appeared in front of the 3,000 delegates of the National People's Congress and read the usual parish leaflet of the Communist Party, exposing some of the latest achievements of the Government, giving glimpses of the future management policy and forecasts on the growth of the economy. After two five-year terms, always in the shadow of the omnipresent President Xi Jinping, Li said goodbye to the legislature that day.. He was retiring. Almost eight months later, he died suddenly of a heart attack in Shanghai.

“He died ten minutes after midnight on Friday despite all efforts to revive him,” read a note issued by the state broadcaster CCTV.. Li was 68 years old and, during the last decade, he was the second most powerful politician in the Asian giant.

Even last year, with the country's economy being torn apart by restrictions under the zero Covid policy and with popular fatigue with continuous closures, the profile of this veteran economist gained strength as a more reformist counterweight to the conservative nationalism of Xi Jinping .

There were many rumors about whether Li, just as his boss extended his power for an unprecedented third term since the Mao Zedong era, would renew the position of prime minister for another term.. In the end, in the midst of a reorganization of key positions in the party, the boss of the Asian superpower retired the person who had been his right-hand man and firm defender of the country's openness..

In the early years of Xi's government, the prime minister was responsible for macroeconomic policies. He was seen by many as a kind of guru of unbridled economic growth.. But the truth is that, little by little, his hand in key decisions weakened while President Xi concentrated more and more power in his figure..

The number 2, on many occasions, seemed little more than an extra with a more diplomatic than executive role.. But the pandemic arrived and Li reemerged, leading the strategy to combat the spread of the virus, as well as supervising all the necessary steps that had to be taken so that the economy did not collapse.

Li comes from humble origins in Anhui province, eastern China. The son of a low-level official and experienced in the youth of the party, he trained in the capital, where he earned a doctorate in Economics from Peking University and went on to win the Sun Yefang Prize, the most important award in economic circles. chinese. In 1998, at the age of 43, he was appointed governor of Henan, a province in the center of the country, being the youngest politician in Chinese history to hold that position..

He went through several CCP secretariats in a couple of provinces until he returned to Beijing in 2008 as vice prime minister.. Then, his name was widely heard as a candidate to replace former President Hu Jintao.. He was the favorite in all the pools. Finally, Xi Jinping was chosen and Li was promoted to prime minister in 2013.. He took office with force, leading popular economic policies of structural reform and debt reduction, which were baptized as “Likonomics.”

But his hand at the reform helm lasted until Xi promoted himself as head of the Leading Group on Comprehensively Deepening Reform, one of the strong groups directing economic policies.. In 2018, Li, who also held the second seat on the Politburo Standing Committee, the top ruling body, was re-elected for a second five-year term. But Xi, on that occasion, entrusted economic management to one of his trusted men, former Vice Premier Liu He.