China: Mr. Li Keqiang, a former Chinese premier, has passed away at the age of 68. The former premier suffered a heart attack and passed away in Shanghai shortly after midnight, as reported by the state-run news agency Xinhua.
During his 10-year term as premier under Mr. Xi’s leadership, Mr. Li Keqiang projected an image of being a more contemporary and devoted member of the Communist Party when compared to some of his more rigid counterparts.
Mr. Li, the son of a low-ranking party official in the underprivileged Anhui province in eastern China, was sent to rural areas to labor as a manual worker during the turbulent Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976.
The diplomat earned a law degree from Peking University, where classmates recall that he enthusiastically embraced Western and liberal political theories, even translating a book on law authored by a British judge, as per the statement.
However, he adopted a more conventional approach after entering the realm of officialdom in the mid-1980s. During this time, his former classmates were involved in protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Mr. Li’s career advanced, and he eventually became the top Communist Party official in Henan province and later in Liaoning in the northeast, both of which experienced economic growth.
But his reputation suffered due to his management of an HIV/AIDS crisis that originated from a contaminated blood donation program during his tenure as the party leader in Henan. Later, Mr. Li was promoted to the position of deputy to the then-premier, Mr. Wen Jiabao.
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