China Cracks Down on Grieving for Former Premier

Li Keqiang is considered 'the road not taken' under Xi Jinping's authoritarian rule
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2023 4:15 PM CDT
China Cracks Down on Grieving for Former Premier
Residents mourn former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at a designated place in Zhengzhou city in central China's Henan province on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023.   (Chinatopix Via AP)

China will lower flags to half-staff on Thursday to mourn former premier Li Keqiang when he is cremated—but authorities are trying to make sure the mourning doesn't reach levels they consider excessive. Li, the country's top economic official from 2013 until earlier this year, had been considered a possible future leader. But he was largely sidelined by Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, and an outpouring of grief after his death last Friday was seen as implied criticism of Xi's rule, the New York Times reports. Many social media posts were censored in the days after Li's death, including those that described him as a "great man" or a "good premier for the people," along with any discussion of political or economic reform.

The Times notes that the death of a senior official can lead to tense times for the Communist Party. In 1989, the death of Hu Yaobang, who had been forced to step down as party general secretary two years earlier, led to the Tiananmen Square protests. For many people in China, Li, considered a supporter of free-market policies and openness to the West, "now represents the path not taken by China's increasingly authoritarian government," the Guardian reports. Students at universities around the country have been told to refrain from public gatherings. Mourners have been leaving flowers at Li's childhood residence in Hefei and other locations, but authorities are keeping a close eye on the crowds, and some makeshift memorials have been removed, reports CNN.

"There is definitely a lot of discontent in some quarters about Xi Jinping and little room to express it without taking a big risk," Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor of Chinese history at the University of California, Irvine, tells the Guardian. "Expressing regret for Li's death provides an opportunity for doing this in at least a veiled way." Before he was replaced with Xi loyalist Li Qiang earlier this year, Li was the party's second-ranked official, but he received much less attention from state media than Xi, the AP reports. In state media, news of the 68-year-old's death was initially ranked lower than items including California Gov. Gavin Newsom's visit and a new book from Xi, notes the Times. (More Li Keqiang stories.)

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