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.

HK Stocks React to Xi

Xi and Politburo move markets in a downward direction

How did Hong Kong react to General Secretary Xi Jinping's extension of power for at least another five years and his seven-man Politburo lineup?

The Hang Seng Index plunged over 700 points to drop below 16,000 points, a 13-year low. The index fell 4.4 percent to 15,494. 24 at 11.01am local time, the lowest level since May 2009. There was a major sell off of tech stocks, with Alibaba Group falling 8.8 percent to HK$63.50, a record-low close, and Tencent Holdings slumped 7 percent to HK$216.80. Meituan slumped 9.5 percent to HK$128,10.

HSI plunged below 15,000 in 13 years

Developer stocks also dropped, with Longfor Group falling 9.4 percent to HK$17.30 and Country Garden lost 7.7 percent to HK$1.32.

In his report to the Congress, Xi called for "regulating the mechanism of wealth accumulation", signalling a tighter oversight of private capital following months of crackdown on tech companies, while also pushing his vision for "common prosperity" in a bid to close the wealth gap in the country.

China's economy grew only 3.9 percent in the third quarter when it had projected 5 percent, demonstrating a lack of consumer confidence in the retail sector, which only grew 2.5 percent in the third quarter.

Does Xi even care about economic numbers? This slide backwards is a rebuke to what Jiang Zemin/Zhu Rongji and Hu Jintao/Wen Jiabao did in the past 20 years.

Unless Xi has an economic miracle up his sleeve, stocks are going to sink further.