Li Keqiang

Li Keqiang (born July 1, 1955, Hefei, Anhui province, China—died October 27, 2023, Shanghai, China) was a Chinese politician and government official who served as premier of China from 2013 to 2023.

Li grew up in Anhui province in east-central China, where his father was a local official. His formal schooling was interrupted in 1974–78 during the latter part of the Cultural Revolution and early post-Mao Zedong years, when he was sent to a commune in eastern Anhui. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1976 and served as the secretary of the party’s commune branch. In 1978 he was given the chance to attend college and enrolled at Peking University in Beijing. He became immersed in school and party politics while there and received a degree from the university’s law department in 1982. Upon graduation he joined the leadership of the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL), where he became acquainted with future president of China Hu Jintao (who at that time was a leader of the organization). The two soon developed a close relationship.

Li rose through the hierarchy of the CCYL in the 1980s and ’90s, becoming the head (first secretary) of it in 1993. At the same time, he also earned advanced degrees in economics from Peking University. In 1998 he moved into the leadership of the CCP in Henan province, where he served first as acting governor (1998–99) and then as governor (1999–2003) before becoming provincial secretary of the party (2002–04). Li had mixed success during his time in office there, as he was credited with considerably improving the provincial economy but was dogged by a scandal surrounding an official cover-up of the poor treatment of AIDS patients who had been infected through an unscrupulous blood-donation program. He was officially lauded for his handling of the issue, however, and in 2004 he was named party secretary in Liaoning province, where he also chaired (2005–07) the standing committee of the provincial legislature. He drew generally positive notice there, particularly for his efforts to increase the availability of affordable housing for workers.

In 2007 Li made the jump to the national CCP leadership, when he was elected to the party’s all-powerful standing committee of the Political Bureau (Politburo). From 2008 he also served as China’s executive vice premier. By that time speculation had grown that Li was being groomed to succeed Hu Jintao as China’s president. It soon became apparent, however, that another rising star—Xi Jinping, who also had become a member of the Political Bureau standing committee in 2007—was the likely candidate for the post, after he was first elected vice president of the country in 2008 and then vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (which President Hu chaired) in 2010. At the 18th CCP party conference in November 2012, Li was again elected to the standing committee, and he was tapped to succeed Wen Jiabao as premier. He was elected to that office on March 15, 2013, during the National People’s Congress in Beijing. Li retired in March 2023 and was succeeded by Li Qiang. Later that year, Li Keqiang died unexpectedly of a heart attack.