HONG KONG (AP) — The sudden death of Li Keqiang, China’s former No. 2 leader, has stunned many in the country, and they are paying tribute to the former official who promised market-oriented reforms but fell short politically. Was sidelined.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Li, who died of a heart attack on Friday, was China’s top economic official for a decade, steering the world’s second-largest economy through challenges such as tensions with the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic. Helped in growing the economy.
He was known for his advocacy of private business, but as President Xi Jinping acquired more powers than ever before and upgraded the military and security services to aid in the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”, he spent most of his Lost effect.
The hashtag related to his death was viewed more than 1 billion times on Chinese social media platform Weibo within a few hours. On posts about Li, the “Like” button was changed to a daisy – a common flower for funerals in China, and many users commented “rest in peace”. Others called his death a loss and said that Li worked hard and contributed much to China.
Xia Fan, a 20-year-old Beijing resident, said he was saddened by the death of Li, whom he called “a really conscientious and responsible prime minister.” He said that when he first heard about this news his mind was blank.
“He really contributed to the development of our generation, I feel that in my heart,” he said.
Designer Chen Hui said that Li contributed a lot. “If I talk about it, it is impossible to finish it in a day. It is a pity,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed condolences on Lee’s death, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Japan’s Embassy in China expressed its condolences on Weibo. It said that Lee had visited Japan in 2018 and had played an important role in relations between the two countries.
Lee, an English-speaking economist, was from a generation of educated politicians in a time of greater openness to liberal Western ideas. After being introduced to politics during the chaotic Cultural Revolution of 1966–76, he enrolled at the prestigious Peking University, where he studied law and economics on his own merits rather than political connections.
Li was seen as the preferred successor to former Communist Party leader Hu Jintao as president nearly a decade ago. But the need to balance party factions prompted the leadership to select Xi, the son of a former deputy prime minister and senior party leader, as the consensus candidate.
The two never formed anything like the partnership that characterized Hu’s relationship with his Prime Minister Wen Jiabao – or Mao Zedong’s undoubtedly with Zhou Enlai – although Li and Xi never openly disagreed on basic principles. Expressed.
Last October, Li was removed from the standing committee at a party congress despite being two years short of the unofficial retirement age of 70. He stepped down in March and was replaced by Li Qiang, a close aide of Xi from his days in the provincial government. His departure signaled a move away from the skilled technocrats who have helped run China’s economy in favor of officials known primarily for their unquestioning loyalty to Xi.
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Associated Press journalist Simina Mistreanu in Beijing contributed to this report.
Source: apnews.com
