Death of ‘people’s premier’ causes ‘waves of sadness’ on social media in China – 10/27/2023 – World

Friday afternoon in China, and the media was still waiting for the official obituary to appear on CCTV’s evening news, to properly remember Li Keqiang, prime minister for a decade, until March this year.

The death had been announced on Thursday’s news with the call that went around the country, “Comrade Li Keqiang has passed away”, plus the information that “every effort was made” to resuscitate him, after a heart attack.

Hu Xijing, former editor and now columnist at the Global Times, replayed the CCTV video on Weibo and wrote simply: “What a shock, deep condolences.” The Caixin website, a financial publication close to Li’s liberalizing ideas, included photos of his career and a profile that the magazine had published ten years earlier.

The obituary came out on Friday night, after all, and was reproduced far and wide. It was complimentary and succinct: “Li was extolled as an excellent member of the CCP. A loyal and time-tested communist soldier and an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, statesman, and leader of the party and state.”

On social media, through Weibo, WeChat and Douyin, the Chinese TikTok, the reaction was much broader and more emotional. He was remembered as “the people’s premier” for his more informal behavior and empathy in dealing with serious episodes such as the effects of an earthquake in Sichuan province, which he visited as soon as he took office.

Closing Friday, the topic “Comrade Li Keqiang passed away” surpassed 1.8 billion views on Weibo and topped Douyin, according to Whatsonweibo monitoring. Among the comments from netizens, as users in the country are called, “It’s so sudden”, “It’s hard to believe” and “Rest in peace, our respected prime minister”.

One of the passages cited was his reaction last year to the case of a woman found in chains in Xuzhou. He exacted heavy punishment and criticized the violation of women’s rights not only in the region, halfway between Beijing and Shanghai, but in others across China. Her visit to Wuhan, at the beginning of the pandemic, in January 2020, was also remembered.

On WeChat, more sober and political than Weibo and Douyin, a text quoted a speech attributed to Li at a State Council meeting earlier this year: “The power of the government comes from the people. Policies must be carried out in a manner that corresponds popular expectations”.

Another reproduced his response, in a conversation with foreign journalists also this year, when asked about Beijing’s pressure on private companies: “I can firmly say that China will open up. The waters of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River will not reverse its flow.”

This was also the tone of Chinese personalities who wrote on platform

“A moment of risk for the Chinese leadership in a time of uncertainty, when a crucial plenary session of the PCC is being prepared in the coming weeks”, he assessed. “Judging by recent history, the sudden death of a leader can be a catalyst for change. Days after Jiang Zemin’s death in November, Covid Zero was suspended.”

A lawyer like Li, Tao Jingzhou, who was his classmate at Peking University, published a photo of the prime minister running and looking at his watch, addressing him by his personal name: “Keqiang left us forever. He was a man who never could take a break. He dedicated his life to serving the country.”