China's Former Premier Dies Suddenly

Li died suddenly Friday morning in Shanghai

As we sat down to dinner Vancouver time, there was breaking news that former Chinese premier Li Keqiang had died suddenly of a heart attack in Shanghai shortly after midnight Friday morning. He was 68 years old. 

There was no further information or an obituary from Chinese state media, only saying it would come later, which probably meant the senior leadership did not expect this news at all.

As for as the general public knew, Li did not have any health problems or recent illnesses, which is why his death comes as a shock at such a young age for a senior Chinese leader.

Li was Xi's premier for 10 years

When news of Li's passing was broadcast on Weibo, there were reports some people posted a song by Malaysian-Chinese singer Liang Jingru (also known as Fish Leong), "A pity it wasn't you", as an indirect way of criticising Chinese leader Xi Jinping. These comments were soon quickly scrubbed by censors.

Nevertheless, Li was not flamboyant like his predecessors, such as Zhou Enlai, Zhu Rongji or Wen Jiabao. Instead Li, who had a PhD in economics, quietly rose to the top, having governed two provinces (Henan and Liaoning) before the age of 50. 

Many thought the Anhui native was well qualified to be China's top leader, but Li was eclipsed by Xi. As most leaders leave the economy to premiers to tackle, Xi took over this portfolio as well, leaving Li with little to do. 

After his two terms were up, Li quietly exited stage right to let Li Qiang take over in March.

Now Xi has another funeral to plan, on top of dealing with his foreign minister sacked for allegedly having a child in wedlock, and more recently his defense minister suddenly fired too.

Ah Li... we hardly knew ye.

Xi's Loyal Lineup

The men who will be in charge of China were revealed today

A day after former president Hu Jintao unceremoniously left before the end of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese leader Xi Jinping revealed his Politburo Standing Committee which left China experts' tongues wagging.

Looking at the lineup, it's not about competence or a diversity of opinion, but fierce loyalty to Xi that trumps all.

The biggest shocker is that Premier Li Keqiang will be replaced by Li Qiang, 63, who was the Party Secretary of Shanghai. 

Xi chose those most loyal to him in Politburo

He bungled the Covid-19 outbreak in Shanghai, which resulted in the city being locked down for more than two months and people complained of not having enough food to eat. 

Surprisingly Li was not sacked because of his close relationship with Xi, and his influence as Party Secretary of Shanghai.

The two go way back to 2004 when Li was Xi's chief secretary in Zhejiang province, and Xi promoted him to governor of the province when Xi became President in 2013.

It's quite concerning that Li will be in charge of the country's economy, but with zero-Covid still in force, perhaps he won't be expected to meet unrealistic targets.

Others in the lineup: Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, and Li Xi.

Zhao is head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, reporting on several officials for corruption over the years. When he was 42 years old, he was the youngest provincial governor when he was governor of Qinghai.

Shanghai's lockdown was chaotic and shocking

Wang has an academic background, and was the brains behind many Communist Party concepts, such as the Three Represents of Jiang Zemin, the Scientific Outlook on Development of Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping Thought. It is believed the Belt and Road project was also Wang's idea.

Cai is currently Mayor of Beijing, and his success of hosting the Winter Olympics earlier this year in a closed loop earned him brownie points. But in 2017 in a bid to reduce the capital city's population, he kicked out many migrant workers who were living in the outskirts of the city.

Ding is a trained engineer and one of Xi's closest confidants. He has worked as Xi's secretary since 2007, and seven years later became head of the presidential office, similar to chief-of-staff.

Li is Party Secretary of Guangdong Province where he pushed for the development of the tech industry and economic reforms. 

Should we be surprised there are no women in this powerful policy-making body? For a country that claims "women hold up half the sky", it doesn't seem to trust or believe women are capable of doing the job...

Former President Hu Escorted Out

Hu escorted out of the Great Hall of the People as Xi watched

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is wrapping up -- but not without some drama.

Sitting next to President -- or rather -- General Secretary of the Party Xi Jinping was his predecessor, former president Hu Jintao. 

One would think sitting next to the big guy would mean Hu was in Xi's good graces, but just the Chinese leader was about to give his closing remarks on the congress, a steward came by to tell Hu it was time to leave.

Hu has a word with Xi and Li before leaving

Hu, looking much older with his naturally greying hair, refused to move at first, and the steward practically had to hoist him up. Xi acted as if nothing was wrong as Hu was carted off.

China experts are completely agog at what happened, but it has been long known that Xi didn't think much of Hu's Communist Youth League, which is supposed to pick out and groom young people for the Party.

Xi has basically dismissed the CYL, saying that "All they [cadres] can do is just repeat the same old bureaucratic, stereotypical talk", thus curtailing Hu's influence.

And today seems like the final straw -- literally forcing him out of the room in front of everyone.

Other surprises are afoot -- Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Han Zheng, and even Wang Yang are not included in the new lineup of the Standing Committee.

There were predictions that Li Keqiang would stay on in the committee but would step down as premier in March, but looks like he's been completely shut out. He was pretty much sidelined the entire 10 years anyway. 

Li Zhanshu is 72, so well past retirement age.

Wang was to stay in Standing Committee

Han Zheng was Vice Premier of the State Council and Standing Committee, and is 68 years old which is time for retirement. He had been the leader of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs since April 2018.

Wang Yang at 67 years old was expected to stay on and not only was a member of the Standing Committee, but also Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He may have been ousted as he was a vice premier in Li Keqiang's cabinet?

This means Xi has kicked out more people he either doesn't like or trust, and will put in at least four of his own people, who will be revealed tomorrow.

The fact that this was all sorted out in August is quite the feat for Xi, and demonstrates his unchallenged power not only in the Party but also the country.

This does not bode well for China, as it means a continuation of zero-Covid at the expense of the economy, and could also further increase tensions across the Taiwan Strait which no one needs now, in particular Taiwan.

Health Minister Criticised for Pandemic Fifth Wave Response

Chan shed a few tears in her last meeting with Legco

Yesterday at her last meeting with the Legislative Council, outgoing Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee shed a few tears as she thanked Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-gnor for having trust in her.

When she leaves office on June 30, Chan will have completed 10 years in the civil service, the last few years undoubtedly the most challenging on her career in having to deal with the response to Covid-19 in Hong Kong.

However, many believe she and her department could have done much more, particularly prior to the fifth wave in getting more elderly vaccinated, which could have mitigated the number of deaths during this period, as well as handed out rapid antigen tests and masks to the vulnerable.

Ho criticised government's response to fifth wave

How can anyone forget the scenes outside public hospitals where elderly patients were left there in the elements because there wasn't enough bed space. Those images were shocking and shameful.

Microbiologist Ho Pak-leung called on the government to apologise to residents for its failure to deal with the city's outbreaks.

On a radio show, he slammed Chan for failing to prepare appropriate Covid responses, even though Hong Kong had long been achieving Covid-zero before the fifth wave of the epidemic started.

Ho said Chan wasted time in not getting more of the elderly vaccinated before the fifth wave, which resulted in a spike in deaths. Ho said this taught Hong Kong a "painful lesson".

He called on the current government to issue a formal apology to its citizens or build a monument in memory of those who died during the city's fifth wave.

While a formal apology would be nice, the monument would be overboard... unless for propaganda purposes...

Seniors lying outside hospitals with no space

Yesterday Hong Kong recorded 1,323 cases, and Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection is warning the number could go up to 2,000 soon.

"We are seeing a slow increase, a gradual increase in the number of cases recently and there have been no signs of decreasing in the past few days," Chuang said. "We expect the cases will be going up and may exceed 2,000 in the near future."

But she also noted the number of hospital admissions and severe cases and deaths is stable.

This does not bode well for the upcoming July 1 anniversary... it looks less likely Chinese leader Xi Jinping will come down here for mark the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China.

Does this mean Premier Li Ke-qiang is going instead?

The intrigue continues...