<p>Beijing: China's former Premier Li Keqiang died of a heart attack on Friday, aged 68, just 10 months after retiring from a decade of office during which his star had dimmed.</p>.<p>Once viewed as a top Communist Party leadership contender, Li was sidelined in recent years by President Xi Jinping, who tightened his grip on power and steered the world's second-largest economy in a more statist direction.</p>.<p>The elite Peking University-educated economist was seen as a supporter of a more liberal market economy but had to bend to Xi's preference for more state control.</p>.<p>"Comrade Li Keqiang, while resting in Shanghai in recent days, experienced a sudden heart attack on Oct. 26 and after all-out efforts to revive him failed, died in Shanghai at ten minutes past midnight on Oct. 27," state broadcaster <em>CCTV</em> reported. An obituary will be published later, it said.</p>.Biden set to speak with China's top diplomat Wang Yi on Friday: Report.<p>Li was premier and head of China's cabinet under Xi for a decade until stepping down in March.</p>.<p>"No matter how the international winds and clouds change, China will unswervingly expand its opening up." Li said at his last public appearance in a press conference in March. "The Yangtze River and the Yellow River will not flow backwards."</p>.<p>He was born in Anhui province in eastern China, a poor farming area where his father was an official and where he was sent to toil in the fields during the Cultural Revolution.</p>.<p>He memorably said in 2020 that 600 million people in China earned less than the equivalent of $140 per month, sparking a wider debate on poverty and income inequality. </p>
<p>Beijing: China's former Premier Li Keqiang died of a heart attack on Friday, aged 68, just 10 months after retiring from a decade of office during which his star had dimmed.</p>.<p>Once viewed as a top Communist Party leadership contender, Li was sidelined in recent years by President Xi Jinping, who tightened his grip on power and steered the world's second-largest economy in a more statist direction.</p>.<p>The elite Peking University-educated economist was seen as a supporter of a more liberal market economy but had to bend to Xi's preference for more state control.</p>.<p>"Comrade Li Keqiang, while resting in Shanghai in recent days, experienced a sudden heart attack on Oct. 26 and after all-out efforts to revive him failed, died in Shanghai at ten minutes past midnight on Oct. 27," state broadcaster <em>CCTV</em> reported. An obituary will be published later, it said.</p>.Biden set to speak with China's top diplomat Wang Yi on Friday: Report.<p>Li was premier and head of China's cabinet under Xi for a decade until stepping down in March.</p>.<p>"No matter how the international winds and clouds change, China will unswervingly expand its opening up." Li said at his last public appearance in a press conference in March. "The Yangtze River and the Yellow River will not flow backwards."</p>.<p>He was born in Anhui province in eastern China, a poor farming area where his father was an official and where he was sent to toil in the fields during the Cultural Revolution.</p>.<p>He memorably said in 2020 that 600 million people in China earned less than the equivalent of $140 per month, sparking a wider debate on poverty and income inequality. </p>