(Dan Tri) – During his career, former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang was known as a leader who put the people first and had a sharp mind on economic issues.
Former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang passed away on the morning of October 27 (Photo: SCMP).
One day in March 2013, a 57-year-old politician bowed amid loud applause from nearly 3,000 delegates at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, after he had just become the new Prime Minister of China.
Throughout his career, the late Prime Minister Li Keqiang was known as a leader of the people, striving for the less fortunate, through policies focused on reducing the gap between rich and poor and providing affordable housing.
After taking office in 2013, Mr. Ly promised to promote reform in all fields and build a prosperous society.
Mr. Li Keqiang died on October 27 of a heart attack in Shanghai, 7 months after the end of his second term as Prime Minister. `All rescue efforts were unsuccessful,` Xinhua announced.
From a humble background
Mr. Li Keqiang comes from a humble family, the son of a local official.
A 2014 article by Xinhua described China’s future Prime Minister as someone who `knows the suffering of manual labor`.
`I told him he was the team leader so he didn’t have to do manual work. But he said ‘No, I can do it.
Mr. Li Keqiang – then Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee – and villagers during a visit to Tan Huong, Henan province, in 2003 (Photo: Xinhua).
In the late 1970s, Mr. Ly plowed fields during the day and prepared for the university entrance exam at night.
Mr. Li then earned a PhD in economics from Peking University.
In the first years of his political career, Mr. Li Keqiang was active in the Youth League of the Communist Party of China, becoming Secretary of the Executive Committee of Peking University in 1982. More than 10 years later, he was appointed
Advancement
Mr. Li Keqiang became China’s youngest Provincial Governor when he took over the leadership of Henan Province in the central region of the country in July 1998.
In Ha Nam, Mr. Ly also had to deal with the challenge of the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Wearing a red ribbon on his chest, a symbol of the fight against HIV, the future Prime Minister shook hands and talked to patients.
`We need to pay attention to them,` Mr. Ly said during a visit in February 2004.
Later that year, Mr. Li transferred to Liaoning province in the northeast as Party Secretary.
Successes in Liaoning province helped Mr. Li advance.
According to SCMP, on a personal level, Mr. Ly has a reputation as a person of integrity.
The late Prime Minister Li Keqiang contributed to steering China’s economy over the past 10 years (Photo: New York Times).
Man of reform
Before becoming head of the Chinese government, Mr. Li was widely known for his `acumen and determination to face challenges,` according to Xinhua.
Businessmen and diplomats who have met Mr. Ly were impressed by his economic analysis, according to the Economist.
`On economic issues, he shows a deep understanding of complexity theory,` the New York Times wrote about the new Prime Minister who took office in 2013.
In his first year as Prime Minister, Mr. Lee promoted a policy often called `Likonomics`, which includes three parts: No stimulus package, financial leverage reduction, and structural reform.
Perhaps due to his not-so-well-off background, Mr. Ly is often interested in employment issues, small businesses, and migrant workers, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.
At a press conference that same year, Premier Li Keqiang revealed that more than 40% of China’s 1.4 billion people live on less than 1,000 yuan a month, many of them without a salary.
Mr. Li Keqiang bowed after presenting his final report to the National People’s Congress in Beijing in March, before the end of his second and final term as Prime Minister (Photo: AFP
In recent years, Mr. Ly has launched a number of policy initiatives to reduce the tax and fee burden on small and micro enterprises.
During the former Prime Minister’s 10-year term, China’s GDP more than doubled, reaching 114 trillion yuan last year.
Besides economic issues, Mr. Li Keqiang also strives to solve one of China’s major problems: air pollution.
Following Mr. Li’s pledge, China issued a national air quality action plan, requiring all urban areas to reduce the concentration of fine dust particles in the air by at least 10%.
To date, levels of the most harmful air pollutant particles, PM2.5, have dropped by two-thirds in Beijing and in most of the rest of northern China.
