Profile: Li Keqiang: a reform-minded premier (4)

In this file photo taken on Feb. 3, 2013, Li Keqiang (R) visits a disadvantaged resident during an inspection tour in Beiliang community of Baotou City, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Prior to this year's Spring Festival holiday, Li made an unplanned visit to the house of Gao Junping, a resident of a run-down area in north China's city of Baotou. Surprised by the new visitor, Gao's grandson, who had been taking an afternoon nap, fled into a bedside closet half-naked.

As Li chatted with his grandpa sitting on the bed, the boy darted out and ducked under a quilt, exposing his buttocks to the camera. The unedited footage broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV) made a splash online, with netizens applauding Li's down-to-earth work style and the "cute and spontaneous" images.

Li later held a meeting with the shantytown's neighborhood committee. He remarked that China should not "build high-rises on the one side and keep slums on the other side" in the course of urbanization. He called for greater efforts to renovate the city's dilapidated areas and provide better houses for its residents. "This is an overarching issue concerning people's livelihoods that should be pushed ahead against all odds," he said.

During an inspection tour of Fenghuang County in central China's Hunan Province two years ago, Li was told that a local girl named Long Guiju was too poor to go to college. Li said he hoped the local government could lend a hand, and he urged a thorough resolution of education-related difficulties. "We cannot only fulfill her own dream of going to college. Such problems should be discovered and resolved in an overall manner," he said.

During this year's NPC annual session, Li asked about the matter again when attending a panel discussion with NPC deputies from Hunan. He was told that other eight poor students had received financial aids like Long Guiju.


In this file photo taken on Dec. 12, 2012, Li Keqiang delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Annual General Meeting of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

Li believes that as people's living standards rise, so does their demand for a quality life. He has attached great importance to promoting environmental protection, especially when it involves a threat to public health.

Responding to mounting complaints over worsening air pollution in some cities, Li called for the monitoring and release of PM2.5 (air-borne fine particles measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter) data to be conducted nationwide at a conference on environmental protection held in December. As a result, China has adopted stricter air quality standards, and PM2.5 monitoring is now conducted in 113 cities.

Li brings modern managerial expertise when analyzing China's actual condition. He said the government should prioritize basic needs when providing social services, as well as build an all-inclusive security network.

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