‘He understood me’: Death of China’s former premier sparks mourning – and a way to air frustration with Xi era

CNN —

The sudden death of China’s former Premier Li Keqiang has spurred an outpouring of grief and mourning across the country. Butfor many, it also appears to offer a rare opening to air pent-up discontent with top leader Xi Jinping and the direction he has taken the country.

Li, who served as Xi’s nominal second-in-command for a decade until March this year, died of a sudden heart attack at age 68 last week in Shanghai, according to state media. He was cremated in Beijing on Thursday after a brief farewell ceremony attended by top officials.

His death, just months after his retirement, shocked the Chinese public. Tributes have flooded the country’s tightly controlled internet, while a sea of yellow and white bouquets left in makeshift memorials have sprung up outside his childhood residence and other places connected to his past.

On social media posts and handwritten notes tucked in between the floral tributes, many people commemorated Li for his unrealized aspirations rather than his policy achievements.

Widely seen as being sidelined by Xi –China’s most powerful leader in a generation– Li was considered one of the weakest premiers in Communist China’s history. So instead, many mourners have focused on Li’s unfulfilled visions which, in their view, could have led China on a much different path than the oneit has troddenover in the past decade.

“People use this opportunity to express disaffection with Xi Jinping,” said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. “It’s a kind of anger – anger toward the current regime.”

A highly educated, reform-minded pragmatist, Li was once seen as a contender for China’s top job. But he ended up as the premier – a role traditionally