Last weekend marked the anniversary of the death of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Perhaps due to the pre-Halloween costume revelry in Shanghai and the authorities' targeted crackdown, Li Keqiang's death anniversary seemed to be forgotten by the public.
Of course, Chinese officials haven't forgotten. Instead, they've taken every possible measure to prevent the anniversary of his death from devolving into large-scale commemorations and protests, including a deliberate suppression of all related commemorative messages, seemingly intent on erasing Li Keqiang's presence. Over the weekend of October 26-27, no official commemorative texts were released, and the few spontaneous posts on social media were strictly restricted from being shared.
Around this anniversary, faculty and staff at numerous universities in Beijing and Shanghai were ordered to be on duty, strictly preventing any unauthorized movement on campus. Beijing, with Chang'an Avenue and the North Third Ring Road as key areas, was under full security, with several times more police, auxiliary police, and plainclothes officers everywhere than usual. The security was even more intense than the annual June 3rd-4th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
For a former second-in-command of the Chinese Communist Party to suffer such treatment only a year after his death is undoubtedly tragic, and at least from the perspective of traditional Chinese Confucian ethics, it is considered disrespectful. However, beyond the erosion of political ethics, Li Keqiang's tragedy represents the tragedy of China's reform. His premiership, death, and posthumous death all seem like sacrifices in this tragic cause of reform.
In terms of his political career, as a post-Cultural Revolution law graduate from Peking University, and subsequently Secretary of the Communist Youth League, Li Keqiang possesses a comprehensive educational background, from undergraduate law to a doctorate in economics. He studied under Gong Xiangrui and Li Yining, making him a true elite of the post-Cultural Revolution "new third generation" of university graduates. From his time at Peking University, he entered the "League faction" training pipeline led by Hu Yaobang, representing the Deng Xiaoping-era trend of selecting younger and more professional cadres. He was even considered a candidate for top leadership of the Communist Party of China alongside Hu Jintao and others
