Li Keqiang (; 3 July 1955 – 27 October 2023) was a Chinese politician and economist who served as premier of China from 2013 to 2023 and was the second-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Politburo Standing Committee from 2012 to 2022.
Born in Hefei, Anhui province, Li rose through the ranks in the Communist Youth League of China, serving as its first secretary from 1993 to 1998. From 1998 to 2004, he served in Henan, including as governor and later as party secretary of the province. From 2004 to 2007 he served as the party secretary of Liaoning. From 2008 to 2013, Li served as the first-ranked vice premier overseeing economy, under then-premier Wen Jiabao.
Initially seen as a candidate for the paramount leader, Li instead assumed the post of premier in 2013. During his tenure, he promoted a shift in China's economic priorities from export-led growth toward domestic consumption. He played a key role in the establishment of the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone in 2013 and championed the policy of mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Under his premiership, the State Council launched the Made in China 2025 strategic initiative in 2015. Li also oversaw China's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Owing to his experience in the Communist Youth League, Li was viewed as an ally of Hu Jintao and associated with the Tuanpai faction. With a scholarly background, he was often characterized as reform-minded and pragmatic, representing the technocratic wing of China's leadership. However, both he and the premiership itself were seen as increasingly hollowed out amid the so-called "dispute between the north and south houses" at Zhongnanhai, as the party–government co-governance of the previous leadership broke down under Xi Jinping. Li stepped down from the Politburo Standing Committee in October 2022 and was succeeded as premier by Li Qiang in March 2023. He died in October 2023 from a heart attack, several months after leaving office.
Early life and education Li was born on 3 July 1955 in Dingyuan County of Hefei, Anhui province. His father was a local official in Anhui. Li graduated from Hefei No. 8 Senior High School in 1974, during the Cultural Revolution, and was sent for rural labour in an agriculture commune in Fengyang County, Anhui. There, he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1976 and became the party head of the local production team. He was awarded the honor of Outstanding Individual in the Study of Mao Zedong Thought during this time.
Li refused his father's offer of grooming him for the local county's party leadership and entered Peking University Law School in 1978, where he became the president of the university's student council. He studied under Professor Gong Xiangrui, a well-known British-educated expert on Western political systems. Together with his classmates, he translated important legal works from English to Chinese, including Lord Denning's book The Due Process of Law. He received a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1982.
In 1982, Li became the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) Committee Secretary at Peking University. He passed of a chance to study in the United States to stay as the Committee Secretary. He entered the top leadership of the national CYLC in 1983 as an alternate member of CYLC Central Committee's Secretariat, and worked closely with future Party General Secretary Hu Jintao, who also rose through the ranks of the CYLC. He was appointed as a secretary of the CYLC Secretariat in 1985.
In 1988, he returned to Peking University for graduate studies. He studied economics under prominent economist Li Yining, who was his doctoral advisor. He received a Master of Economics and a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from Peking University in 1995. At the invitation of Li Yining, Li Keqiang's doctoral dissertation review committee was composed of well-known Chinese economists and researchers. Because of the high academic rigor of the committee, Li postponed the defense of his dissertation by six months. Described as being able to "withstand any kind of inspection" by his doctoral advisor, Li's doctoral dissertation, "On the ternary structure of Chinese economy", published in 1991, was awarded the Sun Yefang Prize, China's highest prize in economics, in 1996.
Li became the CYLC's first secretary in 1993 and served in that role until 1998. In 1993, Li proposed the CYLC's Youth Volunteers Operation, which recruits and channels volunteers into educational, social, and environmental projects. It is regarded as an important achievement of his tenure as CYLC first secretary. Li was a representative member of the first generation to have risen from the CYLC leadership. In 1997, he became a full member of the CCP Central Committee.
Provincial tenures
Henan (1998–2004) Li became the youngest Chinese provincial governor in June 1998 when he was appointed governor of Henan at the age of 43. He also became Henan's Deputy Party Secretary. According to provincial officials working with him at the time, Li refused to participate in any banquets or large fancy events not related to government activities. During his time as governor, a public sense of his "bad luck" grew due to the occurrence of three major fires in the province.
Li was known to be outspoken and led economic development in Henan, transforming the poor inland region into an attractive area for investment. He trekked through all regions of the province trying to search for a comprehensive solution to its growing problems. In December 2002, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party decided to appoint Li to replace Chen Kuiyuan as the Secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, and left his post as governor in 2003. Henan jumped in national GDP rankings from 28th in the early 1990s to 18th in 2004, when Li left Henan. However, his government was relatively ineffective at curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was affecting the rural areas of the province.
Liaoning (2004–2007) Li was transferred to work as the Party secretary of Liaoning in December 2004. There he was known for the "Five Points and One Line" project, where he linked Dalian, Dandong, and a series of other ports into a comprehensive network to improve trade flow. In January 2005, Li set a goal of tackling the slums in the province within three years, a project which he coordinated with the central government. The campaign led to the removal of more than 12 million square metres of slums in the province by 2007 and gained him popular support. During his leadership in Liaoning, Li designed the "Li Keqiang index", an unconventional economic indicator that aimed to bypass the often unreliable official provincial GDP numbers, which were often artificially inflated, and thus serve as a better indicator of economic health. Instead of gathering data on total economic output alone, he used railway cargo volume, electricity consumption, and total loans disbursed by banks to determine the health of the economy.
Vice premiership (2008–2013)
Li joined the CCP Politburo Standing Committee after the 17th Party Congress held in October 2007 as its 7th-ranking member. He was succeeded in his Liaoning party secretary post by governor Zhang Wenyue. Given his Youth League experience and his association with then paramount leader Hu Jintao, Li was viewed from early on in Hu's term as a contender to succeed Hu when his term as party leader ended in 2012. While Li's political future seemed promising, he was outranked on the Standing Committee by Xi Jinping, who had just left his role as party secretary of Shanghai to join the central leadership ranks in Beijing. This rank order signaled that it would be Xi, not Li, who would eventually succeed Hu as party general secretary and president. In November 2007, Li met with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, his first meeting with a foreign delegation in his new capacity.
At the 1st Session of the 11th National People's Congress, Li was elected as the first-ranking vice premier, reinforcing the speculation that Li would become premier and was being groomed to succeed Premier Wen Jiabao. Li's portfolio as vice premier included economic development, government budgets, land and resources, the environment, and health. He also became the head of central commissions overseeing the Three Gorges Dam and the South–North Water Transfer Project, as well as the leader of steering committees in charge of health care reform, food safety, and AIDS-related work. In addition, Li was the principal lieutenant to premier Wen Jiabao in the broad portfolios of climate change, energy, information technology, northeastern China revitalization, and developing the Chinese far west. He was also put in charge of restructuring the government.
In March 2008, Li gave his first public speech as vice premier. As vice premier, he was instrumental in pushing through an economic stimulus program in 2008, which was intended to help the economy to rebound from the Sichuan earthquake as well as the Great Recession. He appeared at the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he presented China's long-term vision for development in front of world business and political leaders. In particular, he briefed the WEF on China's commitment to sustainable development, green energy, decreasing the income gap and modernizing key strategic industries. While reiterating China's commitment to peaceful development and its focus in increasing domestic demand despite the external pressures of the 2008 financial crisis, Li also warned against protectionism, saying "opening up can be both bilateral and multilateral... in this sense, one plus one is more often than not bigger than two."
In February 2010, Li gave a speech to ministerial and provincial-level leaders about the importance of changing the economic structure of the country in order to be better poised for future growth. The speech was published with minor omissions in the 1 June issue of Qiushi, the Communist Party's political theory publication. Li said that China had come to a critical historical inflection point where a fundamental shift in the structure of the economy must take place in order for the country to continue its path of growth. Li particularly emphasized the need to boost domestic consumption, and emphasized the importance of continued urbanization. Li also emphasized that China should be moving towards a more middle class-oriented society with an "olive"-shaped wealth distribution, with the majority of the country's population and wealth belonging to the middle class. He also reiterated the importance of industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization in China in order to improve its competitiveness, food security, energy security, affordable housing, and healthcare.