By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who returned to China on Monday after a trilateral summit with Japanese and South Korean leaders in Seoul, has had a powerful drive since he was a young politician. Indeed, he was a strong candidate for general secretary before he assumed the post of Premier at the 18th Party Congress held in the fall of 2012. It seems Li demonstrated his powerful political power once again in the trilateral meeting. It's not an exaggeration to say that Li's reserved power greatly contributed to the fruitful results of the meeting despite initial concerns that the meeting would be an empty talk.

Leaders of Japan, South Korea, and China attend the trilateral summit which ended on November 2, 2015. It has been revealed that Premier Li Keqiang took an active part in the meeting./ Source from Xinhua News Agency

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According to Xinhua News Agency and other Chinese state media outlets on Monday, Li clearly showed such reserved strength at the main conferences and events that he attended. A good example would be his unexpected proposal at the summit talk with Korean President Park Geun-hye on October 31. He proposed to jointly establish a Korea-China innovation park in China's southwestern city of Chengdu. Then he created an atmosphere of actually promoting the initiative. His incredible drive was also shown at a Korea-China business summit on November 1. Li made a significant comment at the summit, saying, "If both Korean and Chinese companies cooperate, they could explore market opportunities not only in China but also in third-party countries." Besides, significant progress has been made on several issues in the Korea-China-Japan trilateral summit on November 1, mainly contributed by Li Keqiang's drive.

His strong drive is closely related with his political career. In his early twenties, he attended China's elite Beijing University. Li entered the top leadership of the national organization of the Communist Youth League (CYL). Then he rose through the ranks of the CYL, ever since. In short, his drive comes from his political confidence of following an elite course without any big failures. In addition, his pride for being number two of the powerful country and his capability of leading Chinese economy as primer since 2013 also play a big part. People's University professor Fang Changping pointed out, "This summit was a substantial meeting beyond expectations particularly for Korea and China." He claimed that there was Li's power and drive behind it.