{ "id": "li-keqiang", "title": "Li Keqiang", "lang": "en", "source_lang": "en", "summary": "Li Keqiang (1955–2023) was a Chinese politician who served as premier of the State Council from 2013 to 2023.", "category": "society", "subcategory": "politics", "type": "person", "aliases": [ "李克强", "李克強", "Lǐ Kèqiáng" ], "generated_at": "2026-10-15", "model": "pro/gpt-6.1-sol", "url": "https://aiwiki.page/en/li-keqiang/", "translations": { "zh-Hans": { "url": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/li-keqiang/", "json": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/li-keqiang.json" } }, "sections": [ { "heading": "", "text": "Li Keqiang (3 July 1955 – 27 October 2023) was a Chinese politician who served as premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China from 2013 to 2023. He was a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee from 2007 to 2022 and served as vice-premier from 2008 to 2013. His career encompassed leadership of the Communist Youth League, senior provincial positions in Henan and Liaoning, and a decade at the head of China’s central government. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nEducated in law and economics at Peking University, Li became closely associated with economic administration, regulatory simplification, support for private enterprise, and employment policy. His premiership included initiatives in taxation and urbanization, economic diplomacy, and the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These activities took place within the party-state leadership headed by Xi Jinping, making the institutional responsibilities of the premiership an important context for his public record. (english.www.gov.cn)" }, { "heading": "Early life and university education", "text": "Li Keqiang was born in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, on 3 July 1955. His family’s registered place of origin was Dingyuan County, also in Anhui; the designation “from Dingyuan” in official biographies therefore refers to his family origin rather than his birthplace. From September 1962 to March 1974, he attended Nanmen Primary School and then Hefei No. 8 Middle School. His schooling overlapped with the Cultural Revolution. He joined the Communist Youth League in December 1973, shortly before leaving school for rural work. (miit.gov.cn)\n\nIn March 1974, Li went to Dongling Production Brigade in Damiao Commune, Fengyang County, Anhui, as a “sent-down” educated youth. His official employment chronology begins with this agricultural work, four years before his university studies. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in May 1976. From November 1976 until March 1978, he served as secretary of the party branch at Damiao Production Brigade in the same commune. Dongling, where he initially worked, and Damiao, where he subsequently held the branch secretaryship, were distinct brigades within the commune. His first recorded party leadership position was thus at village level, before his admission to university. (miit.gov.cn)\n\nLi studied in the Department of Law at Peking University from March 1978 to February 1982, earning a bachelor’s degree in law. Alongside his coursework, he held a leadership position in the university’s students’ union. His academic mentors included Gong Xiangrui, a British-educated scholar of comparative constitutional and political institutions. Li also participated with fellow students in translating English-language legal scholarship into Chinese, including Lord Denning’s The Due Process of Law. These translation activities formed a specific part of his engagement with foreign legal writing during his legal education. After graduating in February 1982, he remained at Peking University as secretary of its Communist Youth League committee, beginning the organizational career covered in the following section. (miit.gov.cn)\n\nLi later returned to Peking University for postgraduate study in economics while continuing to hold full-time Youth League appointments. Between 1988 and 1994, he undertook an in-service graduate program at the university’s School of Economics, receiving master’s and doctoral degrees in economics. His doctoral supervisor was Li Yining, an economist associated with research on enterprise reform and shareholding systems. He completed his doctorate in 1994. The economics qualification was therefore obtained through part-time postgraduate training during his official career, whereas his earlier law degree came from undergraduate study between 1978 and 1982. (english.www.gov.cn)" }, { "heading": "Communist Youth League career", "text": "Li Keqiang became secretary of Peking University’s Communist Youth League (CYL) committee in February 1982, after completing his undergraduate law studies. During 1982–1983, he also served on the Standing Committee of the CYL Central Committee. In 1983 he moved into national student affairs as director of the Central Committee’s Schools Department and, concurrently, secretary-general of the All-China Students’ Federation. He became an alternate member of the Central Secretariat that year, advancing to full membership in 1985. From 1985 to 1993 he also served as vice-chairman of the All-China Youth Federation. These appointments took him from university-level organization into national responsibilities for students and youth associations. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nIn March 1993, Li became first secretary of the CYL Central Secretariat, a position he held until June 1998, while concurrently serving as president of the China Youth University of Political Studies. The League was a youth organization under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, rather than a government ministry: its Central Committee was subordinate to the Party’s Central Committee and directed League work between national congresses. Li’s responsibilities therefore concerned youth organization, political education, and mobilization within the Party-led institutional structure. The official account of his career credits him with promoting two overarching programs concerned with youth civic conduct and talent development, under which more specific educational, volunteering, and vocational activities were organized. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nProject Hope was among the programs pursued during Li’s leadership, but it predated his appointment as first secretary. Established in 1989 by the CYL Central Committee and the China Youth Development Foundation, it mobilized donations to help children from poor families attend school and to improve rural primary-school facilities. During the 1990s, its mechanisms included pairing donors with individual pupils and financing the construction of “Hope Primary Schools.” Li’s documented role was to promote the League’s continuing involvement in the initiative; its establishment and implementation were institutional undertakings, not solely personal accomplishments. (miit.gov.cn)\n\nYouth volunteering acquired a more organized national framework during the same period. On 19 December 1993, the CYL Central Committee and the Ministry of Railways organized railway youth to provide volunteer services, marking the formal launch of the Chinese Youth Volunteer Action. The Chinese Young Volunteers Association was established on 5 December 1994. Subsequent League work plans included long-term, one-to-one assistance, student participation in literacy teaching, and volunteering in disaster relief and environmental activities. Vocational work likewise involved cooperation beyond the League: an initiative launched jointly with the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Labor in early 1994 promoted apprenticeships, workplace practice, skills assessment, and awards for young workers. (gqt.org.cn)\n\nRural-development work combined practical assistance with the strengthening of village-level League organizations. An April 1995 directive established the “Serving Ten Thousand Villages” campaign, linking technical training, information services, and locally organized projects to rural poverty reduction. Its standards included training at least 70 percent of young people in participating villages in one or two practical skills and establishing at least one service project or enterprise. These were program targets, not demonstrated national outcomes. The directive also called for partnerships connecting poorer villages with enterprises, social organizations, and economically stronger regions, illustrating how the League sought to channel outside resources through its local organizational network. (gqt.org.cn)" }, { "heading": "Provincial leadership in Henan and Liaoning", "text": "Li Keqiang moved from the Communist Youth League’s national leadership to Henan in June 1998, becoming deputy secretary of the provincial Communist Party committee and acting governor. He became governor in 1999 and provincial party secretary in 2002, initially retaining the governorship. From 2003 until his transfer in 2004, he also chaired the Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial People’s Congress, the provincial legislature. His successive appointments thus encompassed provincial administration, party leadership, and legislative leadership, although these remained distinct offices. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nHenan’s population and agricultural economy shaped the provincial development agenda. The November 2000 census counted 92.56 million permanent residents; provincial statistics recorded grain production of 42.6 million tonnes in 2004. Li promoted the “rise of the Central Plains,” presenting industrialization and urbanization alongside agricultural modernization as provincial priorities. His administration’s “introduce from the east, advance westward” strategy sought to acquire technology and management experience from eastern China while developing markets in central and western regions. It also emphasized leading cities and towns as development centres, encouraging a Central Plains urban cluster rather than treating agricultural production and urban industrial development as separate objectives. These were stated development strategies, not measures by themselves of their implementation or economic effects. (stats.gov.cn)\n\nIn December 2004, Li became party secretary of Liaoning, serving until 2007; from 2005 he concurrently chaired the provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee. His economic priorities combined the national revitalization of northeastern industrial bases with coastal development. The provincial agenda included state-owned enterprise reform, equipment-manufacturing clusters, port-related industry, and the “five points, one line” coastal economic belt. Housing redevelopment and assistance to households without employed members accompanied these industrial policies. The official account of his provincial service identifies both industrial restructuring and these social programmes as responsibilities pursued during his leadership. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nLarge-scale redevelopment of rundown residential districts began in March 2005, initially targeting contiguous shantytown areas exceeding 50,000 square metres. These districts included settlements associated with industrial and mining enterprises. In Fuxin, for example, many dwellings had originated as makeshift miners’ accommodation; mine closures and unemployment had compounded inadequate housing conditions. The redevelopment mechanism entitled residents to replacement accommodation equal in area to their former homes without charge, while additional floor space could be purchased at a subsidized price. A March 2007 report put that price at about 600 yuan per square metre, compared with approximately 2,000 yuan in Liaoning’s smaller cities. Replacement apartments provided facilities such as running water and central heating. (chinadaily.com.cn)\n\nAccording to official figures reported in March 2007, the first round, completed at the end of 2006, had demolished more than 12 million square metres of rundown housing and constructed approximately 19 million square metres of apartments, benefiting 1.2 million people in 345,000 families. These were province-wide programme totals, rather than outcomes attributable to Li alone. The next phase announced in 2007 targeted smaller districts of 10,000–50,000 square metres. Li also stated that the government would offer employment within twenty days to households in which every member was jobless, linking housing improvement with an explicit employment-assistance commitment. (chinadaily.com.cn)" }, { "heading": "Entry into national leadership and the vice-premiership", "text": "Li Keqiang entered the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee in October 2007, following his service as party secretary of Liaoning. In March 2008 he became vice-premier under Premier Wen Jiabao, while retaining his Standing Committee seat, and was appointed deputy secretary of the State Council’s Leading Party Members Group. He served as executive vice-premier until March 2013. His assigned portfolio combined responsibility for the State Council’s routine executive work with oversight of development and reform, finance, land and resources, environmental protection, construction, and health. These were national coordinating responsibilities spanning several ministries, rather than leadership of a single administrative department. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nA major assignment was chairing the State Council Leading Group for Deepening Medical and Health System Reform. The reform program adopted in 2009 identified five priorities for 2009–2011: expanding basic medical insurance, establishing an essential-medicines system, strengthening primary healthcare, widening access to basic public-health services, and piloting public-hospital reform. Its initial financing estimate envisaged 850 billion yuan from governments at all levels over three years; this was a planned commitment, not a measure of expenditure personally controlled by Li. His coordinating role included chairing the leading group’s December 2009 meeting, which considered implementation of the essential-medicines system and guidance for public-hospital pilots. The program sought insurance participation above 90 percent by 2011 and provided for increased subsidies to rural and urban-resident schemes. (nhc.gov.cn)\n\nHousing responsibilities involved directing national priorities and pressing local governments to provide funding and land. At a national housing conference in February 2011, Li called for construction to begin on 10 million affordable homes that year. The target concerned construction starts, not 10 million completed or occupied dwellings. The housing program encompassed several arrangements, including subsidized homes for purchase, low-rent housing, and public rental housing. Regional-development work likewise connected economic restructuring with public services: during a visit to Yunnan from 31 May to 2 June 2010, he called for western regions to encourage industrial upgrading and accommodate industrial relocation, alongside measures concerning employment, healthcare, housing, poverty alleviation, and drought control. (capetown.china-consulate.gov.cn)\n\nLi also chaired the State Council’s Three Gorges Project Construction Committee and South-to-North Water Diversion Project Construction Committee from 2008. These appointments placed him at the head of interdepartmental supervisory bodies, not in the position of an engineer or construction contractor. The Three Gorges committee brought together central ministries, the governments of Hubei and Chongqing, and the project company; its membership distinguished political and administrative coordination from corporate execution. The water-diversion project similarly had a separate State Council office: official reporting in December 2008 identified that office as the source of investment statistics and its director, Zhang Jiyao, as the official explaining investment progress. Li’s chairmanship therefore concerned coordination across institutions, while specialized offices, project organizations, and participating governments carried out implementation. (brookings.edu)" }, { "heading": "Premiership and the organization of government", "text": "Li Keqiang succeeded Wen Jiabao as premier on 15 March 2013, when the first session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) approved his appointment. He received a second term on 18 March 2018 at the first session of the 13th NPC, following nomination by President Xi Jinping; Xi then signed the presidential decree formally appointing him. These appointments followed the constitutional division of responsibilities: the president nominated the candidate, the NPC decided on that nomination, and the president formally appointed the premier. The Constitution limited premiers to two consecutive terms, independently of the rules governing the presidency. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nAs premier, Li directed the State Council, China’s central government and highest state administrative organ. Under the constitutional “premier responsibility system,” he held overall responsibility for its work, assisted by vice-premiers and state councilors. The council coordinated ministries and commissions, directed national administrative work and local government administration, issued administrative regulations and decisions, and submitted legislative proposals to the NPC or its Standing Committee. Li convened and chaired both plenary and executive meetings. The executive meeting’s constitutionally specified membership comprised the premier, vice-premiers, state councilors, and secretary-general, rather than the entire ministerial leadership. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nAnnual government work reports provided a formal channel through which Li presented the State Council’s record and proposed program to the national legislature. His first such report, delivered on 5 March 2014, reviewed the government’s work in 2013 and set out priorities for 2014; the NPC adopted it on 13 March. Preparation involved more than the premier’s speechwriting staff. According to State Council Research Office director Ning Jizhe’s account of the 2015 report, Li supervised the drafting process and chaired executive and plenary meetings to deliberate on the text. The resulting document combined retrospective reporting with proposed economic targets and administrative tasks for the coming year, submitted on behalf of the State Council. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nLi simultaneously served as secretary of the State Council’s leading party members group. This was a Chinese Communist Party body within the government, distinct from the council’s constitutionally defined administrative meetings. Its work included implementing central party decisions and supervising party discipline within the government. At a meeting chaired by Li in January 2018, the group explicitly pledged to uphold the authority and centralized leadership of the party’s Central Committee, with Xi at its core, and to carry its decisions into government work. The group also reported to the party’s central leadership: the Politburo Standing Committee heard its work report in January 2018 alongside reports from party groups in other major state institutions. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nLi’s premiership therefore operated within a party-state structure headed by Xi, while Li himself remained a member of the party’s Politburo Standing Committee. His concurrent central party responsibilities extended beyond the cabinet. A 2022 Brookings institutional profile listed him as vice-chairman of the central national security body and deputy head of bodies overseeing comprehensive reform, financial and economic affairs, foreign affairs, cyberspace affairs, and law-based governance. These appointments placed him within cross-government party coordination structures as well as at the head of the State Council; they were separate offices from his statutory authority as premier. (english.www.gov.cn)" }, { "heading": "Economic management and structural reform", "text": "Li Keqiang advocated market-oriented reform and support for private business, linking easier business entry and lower operating costs to employment and economic growth. These priorities did not amount to a withdrawal of state ownership: his final government work report, delivered on 5 March 2023, endorsed both state-owned enterprise reform and the removal of barriers facing private firms. It called for equal policy treatment and protection of entrepreneurs’ legitimate rights. His stated reform agenda therefore combined greater scope for market activity with continued state direction of the economy. (apnews.com)\n\nAdministrative simplification sought to reduce the approvals required before businesses could operate, while strengthening supervision afterward. In its retrospective account, the 2023 report stated that more than 1,000 administrative licensing items had been canceled or delegated over the years, and that the number of investment projects requiring central-government approval had fallen by over 90 percent. It reported that average business-startup time had declined from more than a month to under four working days. These were government-reported administrative results, rather than measures of the reforms’ independent contribution to productivity or employment. (app.www.gov.cn)\n\nThe entrepreneurship and innovation agenda extended beyond registration procedures. At a State Council executive meeting chaired by Li on 3 February 2016, the government approved support for makerspaces and pilot innovation platforms intended to provide low-cost, specialized services. The proposed arrangements brought together enterprises, research institutes and universities in fields including electronic information, advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture. The meeting presented these platforms as instruments for developing new industries and creating jobs; those objectives were distinct from demonstrated employment outcomes. The 2023 report subsequently recorded eight consecutive years of National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week, alongside policies encouraging job creation through business startups. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nA major change in taxation was the nationwide extension of business-tax-to-value-added-tax reform on 1 May 2016, following pilots begun in Shanghai in January 2012. The extension covered construction, real estate, finance and consumer services, bringing more than 10 million taxpayers in the remaining four sectors into the reform. Under the general VAT mechanism, businesses deduct eligible input tax paid on purchases from tax charged on sales, reducing the cascading taxation associated with taxing gross receipts at successive stages. The reform also allowed deductions for input VAT on newly acquired immovable property. In April 2016, Li forecast tax reductions exceeding 500 billion yuan for that year; this was an advance estimate, not a completed fiscal result. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nSubsequent fiscal policy included VAT-rate reductions and preferential treatment for smaller enterprises. The 2023 report stated that the previously applicable 17 percent VAT rate had been reduced to 13 percent, while the monthly sales exemption threshold for small-scale VAT taxpayers had temporarily risen from 30,000 to 150,000 yuan. It also reported a reduction in the lowest effective corporate-income-tax burden for small, low-profit enterprises from 10 percent to 2.5 percent. These figures described statutory or preferential tax arrangements; they did not establish that every enterprise benefited equally or quantify the measures’ separate effects on investment, hiring or economic growth. (big5.www.gov.cn)" }, { "heading": "Urbanization, public services, and environmental policy", "text": "Li’s 2014 urbanization agenda linked rural migrants’ settlement in cities to household-registration reform and access to public services. His government work report of 5 March proposed progressively granting urban residency to migrant workers and their families who were willing and able to remain where they had established employment or businesses. It also proposed residence permits for migrants without local registration, wider access to schooling for their children, vocational training, and the gradual extension of basic public services to all permanent urban residents. These were policy commitments rather than an immediate removal of the hukou system’s distinctions between registered and migrant populations. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nAt a work conference on 16 September 2014, Li specified three objectives for 2020, each concerning approximately 100 million people: helping rural migrants settle in the cities and towns where they worked and lived; improving housing for residents of shantytowns and dilapidated urban villages; and encouraging urban settlement in central and western China. These were announced targets, not completed outcomes. The government selected 62 pilot areas, emphasizing smaller cities, counties, and towns. Li called for respect for migrants’ settlement preferences, noting that some retained rural registration because they wished to preserve their interests in village land. Financing proposals included bond issuance with controlled risks and private investment in urban infrastructure, including waterworks and sewerage systems. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nPublic-service expansion also featured in the government’s retrospective reporting. In the report delivered on 5 March 2023, reviewing 2018–2022, Li reported that annual budgetary expenditure on education had remained above 4 percent of GDP, while the retention rate for nine-year compulsory education had risen from 93.8 to 95.5 percent. Annual government subsidies for basic medical insurance for rural and non-working urban residents increased from 450 to 610 yuan per person. The report also recorded successive increases in retirees’ basic pensions and higher minimum old-age benefits for rural and non-working urban residents. These figures described national programs and reported changes over the five-year period, rather than benefits attributable to Li individually. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nHealthcare policy combined insurance financing with support for basic services. The 2017 government work report, reviewing 2016, recorded the merger of the basic medical-insurance systems for rural and non-working urban residents, increased insurance subsidies, and additional funding for basic public health services. It also reported nationwide coverage of the serious-disease insurance scheme and arrangements allowing eligible medical expenses incurred within a patient’s province of insurance registration to be settled directly. These measures addressed distinct problems: pooling previously separate insurance arrangements, financing routine services, and reducing the administrative burden of reimbursement. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nIn his 2014 government work report, Li declared a “war against pollution.” Commitments for that year included closing 50,000 small coal-fired furnaces, removing six million old high-emission vehicles from the roads, and expanding pollution-control equipment at coal-fired power stations. The report targeted an energy-intensity reduction exceeding 3.9 percent and 2 percent reductions in both sulfur-dioxide emissions and chemical oxygen demand, a water-pollution indicator. These were prospective targets. (english.www.gov.cn) Li also headed the National Leading Group on Climate Change, Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction. On 12 June 2015, he chaired its discussion of China’s intended nationally determined contribution under the UN climate framework. A 2019 adjustment retained him as head and assigned the group’s specific work to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the National Development and Reform Commission, distinguishing his coordinating role from departmental execution. (english.www.gov.cn)" }, { "heading": "Economic diplomacy and regional cooperation", "text": "On 18 June 2014, Li Keqiang addressed an event in London jointly hosted by Chatham House and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. His speech, “Inclusive Development: A Better World for All,” presented domestic reform as a basis for international economic engagement. He linked China’s urbanization and industrial upgrading to demand for foreign goods, technology, and investment. To illustrate the opportunities he anticipated, Li projected that, over the following five years, China would import more than US$10 trillion in goods and invest more than US$500 billion overseas. These were forecasts presented to an international audience, not reported outcomes. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nLi also connected administrative reform with access for foreign investors. He described plans to widen entry into services and inland and border regions, and to test investment rules in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone that combined national treatment before establishment with a negative list of restricted activities. He presented these measures as steps toward equal conditions for Chinese and foreign businesses. In relations with the United Kingdom, he highlighted prospective cooperation in infrastructure, manufacturing, and technology, alongside plans for direct renminbi–sterling trading and a renminbi clearing bank in London. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nRegional economic diplomacy included Li’s participation in the fourth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) leaders’ meeting on 15 November 2020. He joined by video from Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, alongside leaders representing the ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. The participating governments’ joint statement described a prospective market of approximately 2.2 billion people and combined output of US$26.2 trillion—about 30 percent of world population and GDP, using 2019 figures. The statement placed the agreement within efforts to support economic recovery and regional supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic. (app.www.gov.cn)\n\nAt the meeting, Li credited ASEAN’s leading role in the eight-year negotiations and called for early completion of domestic approval procedures. He identified tariff concessions, rules determining the origin of traded goods, and trade-facilitation arrangements as practical matters requiring coordination before implementation. After the meeting, he joined the other leaders in witnessing the signing ceremony; Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, rather than Li, signed the agreement on China’s behalf. Li’s documented role was therefore political representation, endorsement, and implementation coordination at premier level, distinct from the ministerial act of signature. (app.www.gov.cn)\n\nThese activities took place within the Chinese Communist Party’s central foreign-affairs leadership structure. Li concurrently served as deputy head of its Central Foreign Affairs Commission under Xi Jinping. At the commission’s first meeting on 15 May 2018, Xi presided as its head and emphasized centralized party leadership over foreign affairs; Li attended as premier and deputy head. His economic diplomacy thus operated within a wider party-led framework rather than a separate foreign-policy authority. The RCEP proceedings also illustrate the institutional distinction: Li represented China at the leaders’ level, Zhong Shan signed for the government, and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the meeting in his own official capacity. (xinhuanet.com)" }, { "heading": "COVID-19 response and late-term economic priorities", "text": "In January 2020, Li Keqiang became head of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s leading group on the novel coronavirus response, with Wang Huning as deputy head. Li chaired its meeting on 26 January. Operating under the Politburo Standing Committee, the group coordinated national public-health measures, medical personnel and supplies, emergency treatment capacity, and responsibilities across levels of government. Its initial instructions included mobilizing resources for Hubei, opening priority transport channels for essential supplies, and expanding hospitals and isolation facilities. Local party and government chiefs were directed to lead corresponding response groups, distinguishing central coordination from local execution. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nOn 27 January 2020, Li visited Wuhan on behalf of Xi Jinping to inspect the response to the outbreak. At Jinyintan Hospital, he visited patients and medical personnel, thanked frontline staff, and emphasized both treatment and workers’ own protection. He also inspected the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, where he called for further research on the virus. At the construction site of Huoshenshan Hospital, an emergency facility being built for infected patients, he spoke with construction workers. These activities combined inspection of existing treatment capacity with attention to the rapid provision of additional hospital facilities. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nDuring renewed economic disruption in 2022, Li emphasized business continuity, employment, and implementation of national stabilization policies. At a State Council teleconference on 25 May, he said that difficulties affecting employment, industrial production, electricity consumption, and freight transport were, in some respects, greater than those experienced in 2020. He instructed departments to produce implementation measures for a newly announced 33-point economic package by the end of May. Local authorities were asked to adapt measures to local conditions, restore logistics and production, and distribute unemployment benefits and social assistance promptly. Li also announced that inspection teams would go to 12 provinces from 26 May to oversee implementation. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nThe package, detailed in a State Council circular issued on 31 May, combined fiscal, credit, investment, and employment measures. It provided for expanded value-added tax credit refunds, deferred social-insurance contributions, stronger government procurement support for smaller enterprises, and delayed loan repayments for eligible borrowers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also called for faster use of local-government special bonds and measures to reduce business rents and utility costs. These were national policy arrangements requiring implementation by provincial and local governments, rather than evidence of uniform delivery. In his subsequent account of 2022, Li reported VAT credit refunds exceeding 2.4 trillion yuan, additional tax and fee reductions exceeding 1 trillion yuan, and deferred taxes and fees exceeding 750 billion yuan. Employment support included contribution deferrals, increased unemployment-insurance rebates to employers retaining staff, and subsidies for retaining or expanding jobs. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nLi presented his final government work report to the National People’s Congress on 5 March 2023. Its retrospective account reported GDP growth of 3 percent and 12.06 million new urban jobs in 2022. For 2023, it proposed economic growth of around 5 percent, approximately 12 million new urban jobs, and a surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 5.5 percent. These figures were prospective national objectives for the coming year, distinct from the previous year’s reported results. (app.www.gov.cn)" }, { "heading": "Departure from office, death, and commemoration", "text": "Li Keqiang left the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in October 2022, ending fifteen years on its highest leadership body. His departure from party leadership preceded the end of his state office: he remained premier until 11 March 2023, when Li Qiang succeeded him. At the first session of the Fourteenth National People’s Congress, deputies approved Li Qiang’s nomination by President Xi Jinping, who then signed the presidential order appointing him premier. The transition concluded Li Keqiang’s two terms at the head of the State Council, which had begun in March 2013. (apnews.com)\n\nLi died in Shanghai on 27 October 2023, aged 68. According to the official obituary issued that day, he suffered a sudden heart attack and died at 00:10 after unsuccessful resuscitation efforts. The announcement was jointly issued by the Communist Party’s Central Committee, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the State Council, and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. His remains were transported from Shanghai to Beijing aboard a special flight on 27 October; an announcement on 31 October set the cremation for 2 November. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nThe farewell ceremony and cremation took place at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing on 2 November 2023. Li’s body lay beneath the Communist Party flag in the cemetery’s auditorium, surrounded by flowers and evergreen branches, with his portrait displayed above it. At approximately 9 a.m., Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan, Premier Li Qiang, the other members of the Politburo Standing Committee, and Vice-President Han Zheng paid their respects. They stood in silence, bowed three times before the remains, and offered condolences to Li’s family. Former party general secretary Hu Jintao sent a wreath. Officials from central departments, Li’s friends, and representatives from his hometown also attended. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nThe officially announced mourning arrangements specified that national flags would fly at half-mast on 2 November at Tiananmen Square, Xinhuamen, the Great Hall of the People, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They also covered provincial-level party and government headquarters, Hong Kong and Macao, border ports, international seaports and airports, and Chinese embassies and consulates abroad. Contemporary photographs documented the lowered flag at Tiananmen Square that morning. (english.www.gov.cn)\n\nPublic mourning was also documented outside the official ceremony. Associated Press reporters observed hundreds, possibly thousands, of people gathered near the Beijing funeral home on 2 November, with police controlling roads and directing people to move along. In Hefei, mourners visited Li’s childhood home on Hongxing Road, adding white and yellow chrysanthemums to a large floral tribute. Some arrived with children or had travelled from neighbouring Jiangsu province. By noon, the accumulated flowers stood more than a metre high and extended several metres across. (apnews.com)" } ], "links": [ "china", "chinese-communist-party", "pandemic", "xi-jinping", "cultural-revolution", "law", "economics", "doctorate", "poverty", "legislature", "urbanization", "unemployment", "wen-jiabao", "health-system", "insurance", "primary-health-care", "constitution", "economic-growth", "market", "innovation", "taxation", "value-added-tax", "fiscal-policy", "infrastructure", "education", "gross-domestic-product", "public-health", "united-kingdom", "wuhan", "shanghai", "beijing", "hu-jintao" ], "sources": [ { "title": "李克强同志生平", "url": "https://www.miit.gov.cn/xwdt/szyw/art/2023/art_7cbc5d6113bf48a9b2d3a021dd5e5ead.html" }, { "title": "Li Keqiang -- Premier of China’s State Council", "url": "https://english.www.gov.cn/premier/2018/03/19/content_281476082486006.htm" }, { "title": "China's new Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee", "url": "https://www.brookings.edu/articles/chinas-new-politburo-standing-committee/" }, { "title": "机构简介", "url": 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"title": "Li Keqiang 李克强", "url": "https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20thpartycongress_li_keqiang.pdf" }, { "title": "Chinese Vice Premier calls for building of 10 mln affordable housing units this year", "url": "https://capetown.china-consulate.gov.cn/eng/xwdt/201102/t20110225_6967720.htm" }, { "title": "Chinese vice premier underscores western region development", "url": "https://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/zt/wrd/201007/t20100709_4911743.htm" }, { "title": "（2008年）国务院办公厅关于调整国务院三峡工程建设委员会组成人员的通知", "url": "https://www.055110.com/law/1/20653.html" }, { "title": "Li Keqiang endorsed as Chinese premier", "url": "https://english.www.gov.cn/premier/photos/2014/08/23/content_281474983011324.htm" }, { "title": "Li Keqiang endorsed as Chinese premier", "url": "https://english.www.gov.cn/premier/news/2018/03/18/content_281476081494828.htm" }, { "title": "Constitution of the People's Republic of China", "url": 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