Li laid to rest as Xi pays final respects

Ayra Wang

President Xi Jinping led top party and state leaders to pay their final respects to former premier Li Keqiang as mourners gathered near a state funeral home yesterday.

The farewell ceremony for Li, 68, was held in Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing, a week after his sudden death from a heart attack in Shanghai last Friday.

Xi and wife Peng Liyuan, along with top government officials, attended Li's funeral at around 9am. Former president Hu Jintao, who did not attend, sent a wreath.

"Xi and wife Peng Liyuan, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi, Han Zheng and others walked slowly up to Li Keqiang's remains, stood in solemn silence to pay their tributes, and made three bows. They shook hands with Li's family members, offering their condolences," Xinhua news agency said.

Top government officials included Premier Li Qiang and other members of the Politburo Standing Committee,. Officials from relevant government departments and representatives of Li's friends and hometown also visited the cemetery to pay their respects, Xinhua said.

"The remains of comrade Li Keqiang ... were cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing on Thursday," the agency said.

Photos circulating on social media platforms showed a huge black banner in the hall that read "Deeply mourn for Comrade Li Keqiang," above Li's portrait.

Attendees wearing white flowers in black clothes lined up to express their condolences to widow Cheng Hong, and Li's remains lay amid flowers and evergreen cypresses covered with the national flag.

People crowded near the funeral house and along Chan'an Avenue, where Li's hearse passed as a final goodbye to the country's former second-ranking official. The funeral was not open to the public.

Li was a pro-reform economist and politician who served as premier under Xi's cabinet between 2013 and 2023. He advocated for market-oriented reform and anti-poverty programs.

He always put the interest of the public first and spared no effort to solve their issues while opposing bureaucracy and formalism, Xinhua reported.

"Li was extolled as an excellent Communist Party of China member, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the party and the state."

Both the national and SAR flags flew at half-staff at the Central Government Offices, Government House, Hong Kong International Airport and all border control points.

Hong Kong Disneyland canceled the pyrotechnics and firework effects of the Momentous show last night "out of respect."

ayra.wang@singtaonewscorp.com