The unexpected death of China’s former Premier Li Keqiang has caused a lot of sadness and grieving throughout the country. But for a lot of people, it seems like an opportunity to express their frustration with Xi Jinping, the leader of China, and the way he has been leading the country.
Li, who was supposedly the second-in-command to Xi for ten years until March of this year, passed away from a sudden heart attack on Friday in Shanghai, as reported by state media. He was 68 years old.
The Chinese people were very surprised when he died only a few months after he stopped working. Many people have posted messages on the country’s internet, and there are lots of bouquets left in makeshift memorials outside his childhood home and other places from his past.
On social media and in handwritten notes among the flowers, many people remembered Li for the dreams he had but didn’t achieve, instead of his accomplishments in politics.
Many people believe that Li, who is not as powerful as Xi, has been ignored and not given much importance. He is thought to be one of the least strong leaders in the history of Communist China. As a result, many people who are grieving have been thinking about Li’s unfinished ideas. They believe that if these ideas had been followed, China would have taken a different direction in the last ten years.
“People are taking advantage of this opportunity to show dissatisfaction with Xi Jinping,” said Alfred Wu, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. “It’s a type of anger – anger towards the current government. ”
Li was very smart and wanted to make changes in China. People thought he might become the leader of the country. However, he became the premier, a position typically responsible for managing the economy.
Usually, that role gives someone a lot of power in the second biggest economy in the world. However, Li’s power to make decisions slowly decreased because Xi started to have more control and moved away from the ruling Communist Party’s way of sharing leadership.
Many people see Li as a potential leader who can change China to be less influenced by ideology, less controlling, and more open to market changes, entrepreneurship, and connections with other countries.
People who were grieving shared Li’s own words to honor him, but also to indirectly criticize Xi. One of the most talked about things was a promise from Li that China’s changes and openness will keep going, just like how the Yellow River and Yangtze River keep flowing in one direction. Another thing Li said that got a lot of attention was a metaphorical reminder that a leader’s actions will be remembered by history: “The heavens are observing what people do. ”
According to Zhang Lun, a professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise in France, people are expressing their dissatisfaction with Xi’s policies from the past ten years. These policies include stricter control over people’s beliefs and less personal freedom. There are also constant political campaigns that remind people of Mao Zedong, the person who started Communist China.
Many people were frustrated because of Xi’s strict zero-Covid policies for three years. These policies hurt the economy and made millions of Chinese people go through frequent testing, quarantines, and citywide lockdowns. The strict rules were suddenly removed after big protests happened all over the country.
Zhang said that people were feeling frustrated because they were confused and hopeless about what would happen in the future. This was caused by China’s economic decline and its decision to focus more on itself and less on the rest of the world. All these feelings were looking for a way to be expressed.
Zhang, who went to the prestigious Peking University with Li in the late 1970s after Mao’s Cultural Revolution ended, said that even though Li wasn’t very important in history or politics, he gave people a chance to express their unhappiness.
In a time when honesty is ignored and fake, important, and meaningless statements are dominant, the fundamental principles that Li Keqiang followed have become highly valuable. “He said that it shows how angry, hopeless, and unhappy people are with the way things are in life, and they blame Li for it. ”
Among the people who supported him, Li was well-known for being a leader who cared about those who had less and was not afraid to advocate for them, even if it went against what his political party preferred. Many people on social media thanked Li for saying that 600 million Chinese people, or about 40% of the population, still only make 1,000 yuan ($137) per month. Official propaganda claims that poverty has been eliminated, but Li’s statement challenges that.
“There was a comment that said, ‘Only he understood me,’ but it got removed afterwards. ” “I haven’t had a steady job for the past four years. ”
In the past ten years, Chinese people got used to seeing Li in difficult and sad times. He was frequently sent as the top party official to offer sympathy and greet people affected by natural disasters, like floods, earthquakes, or pandemics.
When Covid-19 started spreading in the city of Wuhan, Li went there first, about two months before Xi visited the city when the virus was mostly under control.
Many people remembered Li for being down-to-earth and understanding. They posted videos of him talking and having fun with young people while walking around. This was very different from how Xi usually acts in public, as he is often formal and serious.
In a popular video that spread widely at the time and was shared again this week, Li was seen without a face mask at a university in Yunnan province in May of last year. This happened when many local governments were implementing strict measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, as seen in Shanghai’s two-month lockdown.
Saying goodbye to a group of students, Li wished them good luck in finding their dream job. This gesture was seen by many young people as a reassuring reminder that they are dealing with high levels of unemployment among their age group.
Xi has told young people to stop being spoiled and to learn how to endure difficult times.
In another old video that was posted online this week, Li was asked by a university student for a handshake. The student wanted to show off to others and used crude internet language that the government would not approve of. But Li reached out his hand to the student and asked with a friendly expression: “Did you achieve what you wanted by bragging. ”
Wu, who is knowledgeable in Singapore, said that Li displayed a compassionate side that is not commonly witnessed in China’s bureaucracy nowadays.
Everyone appears to be like a robot, without any emotions or understanding for others. But he appeared different – and people still remember that,” he said.
In China, when a top leader dies, it can be a difficult and hard time for the ruling Communist Party. When people are not allowed to openly criticize the government and face harsh punishment for doing so, they may use the opportunity of mourning a well-liked official’s death to express their unhappiness with the leadership.
When Zhou Enlai, who was very well liked and was the premier under Mao, passed away in 1976, the sad public participated in big remembrance events to express their unhappiness with the Cultural Revolution, which had caused ten years of turmoil, aggression, and confusion.
Over ten years later, the death of Hu Yaobang, a leader who wanted changes but was not listened to, caused many people to feel very sad. This sadness grew and led to protests for more democracy in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and many other cities in China.
A group of university students started a movement which ended violently, with the military killing hundreds, maybe even thousands, of protesters. This led to a time of everyone having to think and act the same way.
The Communist Party, led by Xi, has gained more control over surveillance. They are now taking action to limit and influence how people pay homage to a recently passed leader both on the internet and in real life.
On social media, people have deleted videos and posts that showed Li’s ideas for change or any other qualities that could make Xi look bad.
Weibo, a popular site for short messages, stopped users from looking for the love song “Sadly, It’s Not You” by Malaysian singer Fish Leong. Lately, when a leader from any country passed away, some people from China showed their feelings by using a sad song about relationships ending.
Outside Li’s childhood home in Hefei, which is the capital of the Anhui province in eastern China, there were government workers who were guarding the crowd of mourners. They were asking people to not stay there for a long time and were checking the cards attached to the flower bouquets. This information comes from posts and photos shared on social media by people who were present at the scene.
The government was watching and being present at other important places where people were grieving, like Li’s family home in a small village in Anhui and a square in Zhengzhou city, where Li used to work as an important leader 20 years ago.
In some cities, people have been leaving flowers and messages in random places like universities, parks, and public squares. However, some of these have been removed, as reported on social media.
Li’s body will be burned in Beijing on Thursday. Flags will be lowered halfway across the entire country, according to the official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday. Xinhua praised Li for being a great member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a devoted communist soldier, and an exceptional leader of the Party and the country.
Zhang, an expert in France, said that the Chinese authorities will be careful in dealing with public feelings and will try to avoid doing anything that might make people more angry. Although the mourning for Li is not expected to cause a large protest movement right now, it could still contribute to future episodes that may lead to one.
Zhang said that after people express their unhappiness for a short time, their anger will continue to grow. Li’s death has destroyed any chance of having another option, and this feeling of hopelessness will keep getting worse and make the future more uncertain.