The cremation of China’s former Premier Li Keqiang will take place on Thursday (Nov 2) in Beijing days after the “outstanding” leader’s sudden death, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Li, a former economist and pro-reform leader who served as the premier for over a decade before stepping down in March this year, died of a heart attack on October 27 in Shanghai.
His remains were transferred to Beijing from Shanghai on a special plane on that day, reported Xinhua.
“The remains of Comrade Li Keqiang will be cremated in Beijing on Thursday,” the official Xinhua news agency reported.
“He was extolled as an excellent CPC member, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the state,” Xinhua said on Tuesday, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
On the day of his cremation, the flags will fly at half-mast across the country in mourning at the capital’s Tiananmen Square, the Great Hall of the People, the foreign ministry as well as seats of local governments across the country, and diplomatic missions, Xinhua said.
According to the state media, he was in Shanghai on a holiday when he suffered a sudden heart attack and passed away the next day.
“Comrade Li Keqiang, while resting in Shanghai in recent days, experienced a sudden heart attack on Oct. 26 and after all-out efforts to revive him failed, died in Shanghai at ten minutes past midnight on Oct. 27,” said state broadcaster CCTV.
Li’s political career
Between 2013-23, Li was said to be China’s No. 2 leader but had increasingly been sidelined in recent years by Xi who has steered the world’s second-largest economy in a more statist direction.
Li, who served as the country’s premier – traditionally in charge of the economy – was an English-speaking economist and was once considered a contender to take over after then-Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013 but was passed over in favour of Xi.
Notably, the elite economist was seen as a supporter of a more liberal market economy.
In 2014, in his first annual policy address, he was reportedly praised for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, and get rid of corruption that was undermining public faith in the Communist Party.
He once served as a provincial leader in Henan in central China between 1998 and 2004. However, his term was marred by his reputation for bad luck after three fatal fires struck Henan during his time in office as well as an accusation of cracking down after an AIDS scandal.
(With inputs from agencies)
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