Yesterday (July 3) marked the 70th posthumous birthday of former Premier of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Keqiang. The official Chinese Communist Party media, People’s Daily, published an article praising Li Keqiang, but the Party journal Qiushi’s website and the official website of the Central Party History and Document Research Institute have both taken down the article. Li Keqiang’s classmate at Peking University, Tao Jingzhou, posted on WeChat quoting two sentences from Li Keqiang but found that the post did not display in his WeChat Moments. Analysis suggests that this incident may be related to internal power struggles within the Chinese Communist Party.
On July 4, international arbitrator and lawyer at the French Court of Appeals, Tao Jingzhou, posted on X, “Yesterday was the 70th birthday of my former classmate, former premier Li Keqiang. The following message does not display in WeChat Moments.”
Tao Jingzhou was a law student of the class of 1977 at Peking University, and was classmates with the late Li Keqiang.
In his commemorative post on WeChat mourning Li Keqiang, Tao quoted two sentences previously used by Li: “Man proposes, God disposes” and “The waters of the Yellow River will not flow back,” accompanied by a student transcript of Li Keqiang from Peking University.
On July 3, the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily published a commemorative article on page six written by the Central Party History and Document Research Institute, praising Li Keqiang from a Party perspective. The article mentioned that in March 2023, after Li Keqiang “stepped down from leadership positions,” he continued to support and endorse the leadership of the Central Committee led by Xi Jinping, describing Li Keqiang as diligent and hardworking.
However, the Party journal Qiushi, which first published this article, deleted the tribute to Li Keqiang on his posthumous birthday; the official website of the Central Party History and Document Research Institute also took down the article. The People’s Daily website has not removed the article, and posts sharing this article on Weibo have not been deleted.
It is noteworthy that search results show that most local official media of the Chinese Communist Party have barely reprinted this tribute article to Li Keqiang.
Political commentator Li Lin Yi told the Epoch Times that it appears the Chinese Communist authorities are trying to suppress the momentum of this article. Due to the opaque operations of the Chinese Communist Party, the outside world cannot clearly discern what has happened, but the conflicting messages being put out at least hint at internal uncertainties within the Party regarding Li Keqiang’s death. There are also many people who support and sympathize with Li Keqiang and are dissatisfied with Xi Jinping, which is reflected in what seems to be a strangely intense internal power struggle within the propaganda system.
Li Keqiang retired in March two years ago, and in October of the same year, the official announcement claimed he had died from a sudden heart attack, leaving behind many suspicions. His death is suspected to be related to internal power struggles, with the current leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, becoming the target of criticism.
Rumors of discord between Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang surfaced intermittently during Li’s tenure. In August 2022, after the Beidaihe Conference, where Xi Jinping inspected the Northeast region, which had long been economically backward due to a dominant planned economy, Li Keqiang visited the economically developed city of Shenzhen. On August 17, Li Keqiang laid flowers at a statue of Deng Xiaoping. Videos of Li Keqiang inspecting Shenzhen circulated widely on mainland social media, where he encouraged the crowd, saying, “China’s opening up must continue to move forward, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River will not flow backwards.” These words were interpreted as a political declaration.
At the end of February 2023, right before his retirement, Li Keqiang made a speech at the National Development and Reform Commission, shouting, “Man proposes, God disposes, it seems that the heavens have eyes.”
Observers suggest that Li Keqiang’s remarks seemingly imply his skepticism towards Xi Jinping’s dismissal of tradition. The term “heavens” is one of China’s oldest philosophical concepts, representing a realm beyond human existence, and is an important concept of moral clarity in Eastern philosophy.