Li was China’s No. 2 leader from 2013-23 and an advocate for private business but was left with little authority after President
CCTV said Li had been resting in
Li, an English-speaking economist, was considered a contender to succeed then-
As the top economic official, Li promised to improve conditions for entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth. But the ruling party under Xi increased the dominance of state industry and tightened control over tech and other industries. Foreign companies said they felt unwelcome after Xi and other leaders called for economic self-reliance, expanded an anti-spying law and raided offices of consulting firms.
Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress in
The same day, Xi awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader, discarding a tradition under which his predecessors stepped down after 10 years. Xi filled the top party ranks with loyalists, ending the era of consensus leadership and possibly making himself leader for life. The No. 2 slot was filled by
Li Keqiang, a former vice premier, took office in 2013 as the ruling party faced growing warnings the construction and export booms that propelled the previous decade’s double-digit growth were running out of steam.
Government advisers argued
Li’s predecessor,
In a 2010 speech, Li acknowledged challenges including too much reliance on investment to drive economic growth, weak consumer spending and a wealth gap between prosperous eastern cities and the poor countryside, home to 800 million people.
Li was seen as a possible candidate to revive then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping’s market-oriented reforms of the 1980s that started China’s boom. But he was known for an easygoing style, not the hard-driving impatience of Zhu Rongji, the premier in 1998-2003 who ignited the construction and export booms by forcing painful reforms that cut millions of jobs from state industry.
Li was believed to have supported the “China 2030” report released by the
In his first annual policy address, Li in 2014 was praised for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, clean up air pollution and root out pervasive corruption that was undermining public faith in the ruling party.
Xi took away Li’s decision-making powers on economic matters by appointing himself to head a party commission overseeing reform.
Xi’s government pursued the anti-graft drive, imprisoning hundreds of officials including former Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang. But party leaders were ambivalent about the economy. They failed to follow through on a promised list of dozens of market-oriented changes. They increased the dominance of state-owned banks and energy and other companies.
Xi’s government opened some industries including electric car manufacturing to private and foreign competition. But it built up state-owned “national champions” and encouraged Chinese companies to use domestic suppliers instead of imports.
Borrowing by companies, households and local governments increased, pushing up debt that economists warned already was dangerously high.
Li showed his political skills but little zeal for reform as governor and later party secretary of populous
Li earned the nickname “Three Fires Li” and a reputation for bad luck after three fatal fires struck
Meanwhile, provincial leaders were trying to suppress information about the spread of AIDS by a blood-buying industry in
Li’s reputation for bad luck held as
Days after he took office, a landslide on
In the eastern port of
A
Li oversaw China’s response to COVID-19, the first cases of which were detected in the central city of
In one of his last major official acts, Li led a
Li was born
Studying law at
After serving in a series of party posts, Li received his Ph.D. in economics in 1994 from
Following
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