Death of Li Keqiang
On 27 October 2023 Li Keqiang, who had stepped down as premier only seven months earlier, died of a sudden heart attack in Shanghai at the age of 68. An obituary from the CPC Central Committee and three other bodies called him "an outstanding leader of the Party and the state"; on 2 November his remains were cremated at Babaoshan in Beijing in the presence of Xi Jinping and other leaders, and flags flew at half-staff. His death prompted large spontaneous mourning at his childhood home in Hefei and elsewhere — at least 250,000 visitors in five days, by one eyewitness estimate — while online comment was tightly controlled.
Retirement
Li Keqiang, born in July 1955 in Dingyuan, Anhui, joined the Politburo Standing Committee in 2007 and served as Premier of the State Council from March 2013 to March 2023, sitting on the Standing Committee of the 17th, 18th and 19th Central Committees. On 5 March 2023 he delivered his last government work report to the First Session of the 14th NPC, and later that month he stepped down as premier and was succeeded by Li Qiang.
Death and Official Funeral
On 27 October 2023 the CPC Central Committee, the NPC Standing Committee, the State Council and the CPPCC National Committee issued an obituary announcing that Li had died in Shanghai at 00:10 that day, aged 68, after a sudden heart attack and failed efforts to save him. It called him "an eminent proletarian revolutionary and statesman and an outstanding leader of the Party and the state", reviewed his work in the Communist Youth League, Henan, Liaoning and the State Council, and said that after stepping down he had firmly upheld and supported the leadership of the Party Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core.
According to VOA, Xinhua replaced the "like" button on its social media obituary post with a wreath icon, while almost all comment sections under news of his death on Weibo were filtered or removed. No details of the funeral were announced in advance; a brief official notice said only that his remains would be cremated in Beijing and flags flown at half-staff across the country.
On 2 November Li's remains were cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing. Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi and Han Zheng attended the farewell, Hu Jintao sent a wreath, and a banner reading "Deeply mourn Comrade Li Keqiang" hung above the main hall. VOA reported that large numbers of police were deployed that day to restrict access to the funeral home and the cemetery area.
Public Mourning
The day after Li's death, hundreds of people came overnight to lay flowers near his childhood home in Hefei; some bowed and some wept. The area around the former residence on Hefei's Red Star Road became the largest site of spontaneous mourning, and people also gathered in his ancestral county of Dingyuan and in Zhengzhou, where he had once led Henan province. A first-hand account published by the China Media Project estimated that at least 250,000 people visited the area around the residence in the five days from 27 to 31 October; large numbers of volunteers and staff in blue vests guided the crowds and urged mourners to move on after laying flowers, and most of the messages left were simple condolences and farewells.
Gallery
Narrative Comparison
| Source | Narrative |
|---|---|
| Chinese official position (obituary of the four central bodies, Xinhua) | Comrade Li Keqiang was an outstanding Party member, a loyal communist fighter tested over time, an eminent proletarian revolutionary and statesman, and an outstanding leader of the Party and the state. He made important contributions in the Communist Youth League, Henan, Liaoning and the State Council; as premier, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core, he upheld the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoted high-quality development and worked to safeguard and improve people's livelihoods. After stepping down he firmly upheld and supported the Central Committee's leadership with Xi Jinping at its core and the fight against corruption. |
| Eyewitness at the Hefei memorial (Xue Laidi, China Media Project, 2023) | Visiting the Red Star Road site several times by day and night, the author estimated that at least 250,000 people came to mourn in five days. The "blue vests" largely did not interfere and mourners did nothing out of the ordinary; taxi drivers refused fares from passengers heading to the memorial and vendors gave flowers free to people from out of town. Most messages were simple condolences or farewells; that Li was "a good man" and "a good premier" was the consensus, but few could say what concrete things he had done. The author suggested that with the space for speech having shrunk in recent years, many people lacked the experience or language to express themselves in public. |
| Overseas scholars (Dali Yang and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, interviewed by VOA, 2023) | Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, said the handling of Li's death was almost the same as for former Premier Li Peng in 2019 and thus routine, but that the lack of transparency about the cause of death, despite official media citing a heart attack, deepened public scepticism. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian at the University of California, Irvine, said it fitted a pattern of releasing little information about top officials. |
Key Milestones
- Delivers his last work report
Li delivered his last government work report to the 14th NPC and stepped down as premier later that month.
- Dies in Shanghai
An obituary from four central bodies announced that Li had died of a sudden heart attack in Shanghai at 00:10, aged 68.
- Mourners gather in Hefei
Hundreds of people laid flowers near Li's childhood home in Hefei.
- Cremation at Babaoshan
Xi Jinping and other leaders attended the farewell at Babaoshan, Hu Jintao sent a wreath, and flags flew at half-staff.
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Chronicles of Modern China. (2026, November 2). Death of Li Keqiang. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://www.cmcarchive.org/events/death-of-li-keqiang-2023
“Death of Li Keqiang.” Chronicles of Modern China. Last modified November 2, 2026. Accessed November 2, 2026. https://www.cmcarchive.org/events/death-of-li-keqiang-2023.
Chronicles of Modern China. Death of Li Keqiang[EB/OL]. (2026-11-02)[2026-11-02]. https://www.cmcarchive.org/events/death-of-li-keqiang-2023.