'Li Keqiang's Death' Disappears from Chinese Portal Real-Time Search Rankings

Disappeared from Top 50 on Baidu and Weibo

On the 29th, hashtags related to former Premier Li Keqiang, who passed away three days ago, disappeared from major Chinese portal sites.

That morning, hashtags related to former Premier Li vanished from the top 50 real-time search rankings on Baidu, China's representative portal site. The obituary of former Premier Li, announced by Chinese authorities, had consistently ranked first or second on Baidu's real-time search until the previous day.

Instead, the hashtag "Why Xi Jinping is Implementing Large-Scale Modernized Agriculture" appeared at the top, and news of U.S. President Joe Biden meeting Wang Yi, member of the Chinese Communist Party Central Political Bureau and Foreign Minister, took first place.

On the same day, no hashtags related to former Premier Li were found in the top 50 real-time searches on Weibo (微博, the Chinese version of Twitter).

The day before, on Weibo, "Comrade Li Keqiang's Portrait" and "Comrade Li Keqiang's Obituary" ranked first and second in search terms respectively, and the hashtag #Comrade Li Keqiang Has Passed Away# recorded over 2.2 billion views.

Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
Photo by AP Yonhap News

State-run media only broadcast brief news reports related to the death of former Premier Li. On the morning of the 27th, China Central Television (CCTV), which first reported the news of former Premier Li's death, aired a short report on the authorities' obituary related to his death just 14 minutes after the start of its evening main news program Xinwen Lianbo (新聞聯播).

Major state-run media such as the Communist Party's official newspaper People's Daily and the state news agency Xinhua also consistently cited CCTV, only briefly covering the obituary news of former Premier Li without publishing separate articles introducing his lifetime activities or achievements.

Chinese authorities announced that former Premier Li died of a heart attack around 0:10 a.m. on the 27th in Shanghai.

The Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that former Premier Li was transported to the hospital while swimming but was declared dead, and his body was transported to Beijing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.