Former Chinese Premier Li Peng is in Critical Condition

Report says 81-year-old former Chinese Premier Li Peng is seriously ill, the CPC Central Committee General Office has prepared to deal with his funeral. The death of Li Peng will remove one of major obstacles in handling the after-effects of Tiananmen Square protests happened in 1989. Li Peng has always been the toughest senior statesman to oppose the rehabilitation of June 4th. Although he was not the person who became the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee after the incident of June 4th, the events pushed him to an extreme position.

Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, and many other current and former leaders of Chinese Communist Party attended recent funeral ceremonies of Qian Xuesen and Gu Mu, but the former Prime Minister Li Peng did not show up. This once again sparked speculation and rumors that Li Peng was unable to attend due to the the sickness.

This is not the first time to hear the news of Li's critical illness, media reported Li Peng's health condition as early as around 2008, the situation was not optimistic then. Li Peng did not attend the Olympics opening ceremony, and again he attracted media attention when he was absent from the funeral of Hua Guofeng. Li Peng has always been serious ill since he got the apoplexy in mid-2008. Been treated in Beijing 301 Hospital for a long time, he also had facial paralysis / numbness, incontinence and so on.

After his retirement since the Sixteenth National Congress, compared with Jiang Zemin, Li Peng's influence declined significantly in recent years.
He forced to launch the Three Gorges Dam Project during his administration, however, none the country's highest leadership of the CPC attended the "top out ceremony" of the Three Gorges Dam in May 20, 2006. His trusted follower Wang Tingkuo had been investigated by the CCDI since the second half of 2007. Wang was sentenced to life imprisonment in August 2009.