Li Keqiang << lee kuh chahng >> (1955-2023) served as premier of China from 2013 to 2023. He succeeded Wen Jiabao at the conclusion of Wen’s second five-year term. As premier, Li headed the State Council, the government’s top administrative branch. He also oversaw China’s economic policy.
Li Keqiang was born in Dingyuan County, Anhui Province, in July 1955. His father was a local government official. In 1974, near the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, Li began four years of manual labor at a collective farm (see Cultural Revolution). He joined the Communist Party in 1976. On the farm, he soon became party head of his production team. From 1978 to 1982, Li earned a law degree from Peking University in Beijing. He also became active in the Communist Youth League. Li later completed a Ph.D. degree in economics at Peking University.
From 1982 to 1998, Li advanced through a series of leadership positions in the Communist Youth League. In 1998, he became deputy party secretary and acting governor in Henan Province. He was promoted to governor of Henan in 1999 and held the position of provincial party secretary from 2002 to 2004. Li encouraged agricultural modernization and improved farm production. From 2004 to 2007, Li was the provincial party secretary in the northeastern industrial province of Liaoning.
On the national level, Li became a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1997. The committee is one of the main administrative bodies of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2007, he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the most powerful decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party. Li served as the executive vice premier of China from 2008 to 2013. He retired from politics in March 2023, at the end of his second five-year term as premier. Li died on Oct. 27, 2023.
See also Wen Jiabao.
