BEIJING: Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang, a reform-minded bureaucrat once tipped as the country’s future leader only to be eclipsed by President Xi Jinping, died Friday. He was 68.

He had a heart attack on Thursday and passed away in Shanghai just after midnight, state-run news agency Xinhua said.

China’s foreign ministry said it “deeply” mourned Li’s “tragic passing”.

“An obituary will be published soon,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

A career bureaucrat who spoke fluent English, Li voiced support for economic reforms during his time in office. During his 10-year tenure as premier under Xi, he cultivated an image as a more modern official compared to his stiffer colleagues.

The son of a minor party official in eastern China’s Anhui province, Li was sent to the countryside to work as a labourer during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976. He went on to study law at Peking University, where classmates say he embraced Western liberalism.

But he became more orthodox after joining the ranks of officialdom in the mid-1980s, working as a bureaucrat while his former classmates protested in 1989.

Li rose to become the ruling Communist Party’s top official in Henan province, and in Liaoning in the northeast — tenures marked by both economic growth and a health scandal.