Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang has died at 68, state media has reported.
He was the second most powerful man in the ruling Chinese Communist Party until he retired last year.
State media said he had been “resting” in Shanghai when he suffered a sudden heart attack on Thursday.
He passed away ten minutes past midnight on Friday despite “all-out efforts” to revive him, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Bad luck for China. It should have been the other guy to drop dead.
That’s some Russian luck
Li was one of the “somewhat likable” character in the recent leadership of China.
He emphsized that china has “0.6 billion people (almost half of the Chinese population) with less than 1000 RMB (less than $136) of disposable income per month”, when Xi was touting his success in “eliminating poverty”.
He made it very clear that it was “the last year of this administration” a year before he stepped down. Many think he was referencing the PRC constitution, which states an administration lasts no more than 2 terms, before it was changed by Xi.
It might be people over-interpreting his words; and I am sure being a politician of this magnitude, he has to be evil in many ways. But in comparison, he does seems “somewhat likable”.
How does a country of 1.4 billion have 6 billion people with less than 1000 RMB/mo of disposable income?
Sorry, .6 billion. His speech is in Chinese, 6亿, which was 6 followed by 8 zeros. I got 亿 mixed up with billion.
I will fix it in the original comment.
Found the commie
China had two orderly transitions of power according to their own rules. These were arguably the best years China had had in decades of not centuries. Now we have Xi and nobody knows just how bad things will get.
“Perhaps a stroke? No, no, it’s too horrific. A quiet, dignified death in his sleep.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
He passed away ten minutes past midnight on Friday despite “all-out efforts” to revive him, state broadcaster CCTV said.
A trained economist, he was initially given the reins of China’s economy, but analysts said he became increasing sidelined towards the end of his career as Chinese President Xi Jinping gathered power around himself.
Li was seen to be aligned to former leader Hu Jintao, who was taken off stage at last year’s Party Congress on Mr Xi’s orders.
Li’s death is being widely mourned online, with one person on Chinese social media saying it was like losing “a pillar of our home”.
Li will be remembered for his strong economic track record but the end of his time in office was mired in China’s zero-Covid crisis.
But, when cadres had to choose between his order to protect the economy and Mr Xi’s to maintain zero-Covid with extreme discipline, it was no contest.
The original article contains 371 words, the summary contains 152 words. Saved 59%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
