China's last reformist, former Premier Li Keqiang dies of heart attack
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BEIJING, Oct 28: Former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang has died. He was
68. He died of a heart attack on Friday, seven months after leaving the office
of Premier last March.
An economist who introduced a new theory of 'Likonomics', Li Keqiang had stayed
away from the limelight for quite some time. He was an advocate of open market
economy.
Li, who was China’s No. 2 leader until late last year, served as the premier
for a decade from 2013 to March this year under President Xi Jinping. Xi, in fact, was tightening party control over the economy.
"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
CCTV reported.
An official obituary described him as an "outstanding leader".
In 2022 at a memorial to Deng Xiaoping, he made his famous remarks that turned
out to be his undoing: "Reform and opening up will not stop. The Yangtze and
Yellow River will not reverse course." In an earlier occasion too he had made
a statement that 600 million people in a rich China earned less than $140 per
month. That was a reference to poverty.
Li once told CNN, “China and the United States have common interests.”
One who had witnessed the Chinese revolution, he became a reformist dering
Deng's time. Li, who spoke English well, had a master’s degree in law and an
economics doctorate. He was a protege of Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor.
Li Keqiang is survived by his wife Cheng Hong, a professor of English, and
their daughter.
CNN writes: "The relationship between Li and Hu was in the spotlight last year
when the former top leader was unexpectedly led out of the closing ceremony
of the October 2022 Communist Party Congress, where Xi further consolidated
power.
"In a moment of drama during a usually highly choreographed event, Hu was escorted
from the room, pausing on his way out to pat a stony-faced Li on the shoulder,
who nodded and turned to watch the former leader depart. State media later suggested
Hu left due to health issues.
"Under Hu, Li was named to the party’s top leadership body, the Politburo Standing
Committee, in 2007."
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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(Today's headlines )
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In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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