BEIJING, Nov 2 (Reuters) – China lowered the national flag Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Thursday amid an outpouring of online grief as the country cremated Li Keqiang, known as “the people’s premier” for his down-to-earth, hands-on leadership.

Li, a former economist and pro-reform leader who served as premier for 10 years before retiring in March, died of a heart attack in Shanghai last Friday. He was 68.

At Li’s funeral at a Beijing cemetery where high-ranking officials and national heroes are laid to rest, President Xi Jinping and his wife, with the six other members of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the highest rung of political power in China, as well as Vice President Han Zheng paid their final respects.

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