Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang passed away on Friday due to a heart attack, just ten months after his retirement following a decade in office.
Li, once considered a top contender in the Communist Party leadership, had seen his reformist influence diminish over recent years.
Despite being an elite economist who advocated for a more open market economy with supply-side reforms, his “Likonomics” approach was never fully implemented.
After being sidelined, Li resigned from all political positions in March. His passing has elicited an outpouring of grief and shock on Chinese social media, signifying the end of an era for China’s liberal economic reform.
