The former premier warned of the dangers of unchecked power.
Li Keqiang, then Premier of the People's Republic of China at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, China. September 9, 2015. Credit: World Economic Forum/Benedikt von Loebell via Flickr
Li Keqiang, China’s former premier who unexpectedly passed away this week at the age of 68, first entered elite politics at the young age of 28 in late 1983, when he was elected as an alternate secretary of the Communist Youth League. Engaging in national politics in an era of institutionalization, Li benefited from new rules introduced to foster regulated leadership turnovers to rise up the Chinese Communist Party ranks. To the last, he played by those rules that had made his career.
But this reliance on rules to get ahead did not prepare him for the naked power struggle that always lies beneath the surface in the Party. Having risen to the number two position in the Chinese government he ended up retiring before the normal retirement age, having largely been sidelined by Xi Jinping. His passing spells an end to the party’s experiment with the regulation of politics.
...it is not enough to simply follow the rules. Tactics such as unfounded accusations,
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