Li Keqiang, who rose to be China’s premier before being sidelined by Xi Jinping, dead at 68

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China’s former premier Li Keqiang died Friday in Shanghai of a sudden heart attack, state media reported. He was 68.

Mr. Li retired in March after 10 years as premier, the nominal head of China’s government with responsibility for running the world’s second-largest economy. But by the time his tenure ended, Mr. Li had been progressively sidelined by Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he once rivalled for the top job.

Born in Anhui, in eastern China, in 1955, Mr. Li studied at the prestigious Peking University, where he specialized in economics and law. While a student, he joined the Communist Youth League and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming close to future Chinese president Hu Jintao.

In 1998, Mr. Li became the youngest governor of a Chinese province, taking control of Henan. Other provincial stints followed, before he was promoted to the central party leadership in 2007.

Mr. Li was seen by many as Mr. Hu’s preferred choice as successor, but he lost out to Mr. Xi for reasons that 16 years later remain unclear, though the latter’s family pedigree as a Communist Party “princeling” and perceived support from former leader Jiang Zemin are believed to be major factors.

Even as premier, however, Mr. Li was expected to play an important role, similar to that enjoyed by Mr. Hu’s premier, Wen Jiabao. But while people spoke of a Hu-Wen administration, it quickly became apparent under Mr. Xi that his was the only voice that mattered, and he took on many responsibilities that previously belonged to Mr. Li, or handed them to more trusted officials.

In office, Mr. Li was seen as a more reformist, market-oriented figure than Mr. Xi, who has restored Communist Party control over all aspects of the Chinese economy and cracked down on private businesses seen as too powerful, including the booming tech and education sectors.

At times, Mr. Li appeared to publicly contradict or mildly criticize Mr. Xi, including in recent years, when he was critical of the effects that China’s tough “zero-COVID” policy was having on the economy. But he never broke with his former rival.

As he approached a decade in office, Mr. Li indicated that he would retire as premier. Given his relatively young age, some had expected him to stay on in a senior party role, but at a conference last October, he was removed from the powerful Standing Committee.

At that same meeting, Mr. Hu, now 80, was ejected, looking confused and frail, in what some saw as a pointed humiliation of the former leader by Mr. Xi, who has ruthlessly purged and weakened the Communist Youth League.

Membership of the Youth League was once seen as a key path to the top, as was Mr. Li’s elite education and economic experience. But as the former premier learned only too well, Mr. Xi has rewritten the rules of Chinese politics.