Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang has showcased his open-mindedness and down-to-earth work style in boosting China's international status.

The 57-year-old man who was re-elected into the highest leading body of the Communist Party of China in mid-November loves to read English works in his spare time and monitors the latest economic and technical developments across the world.

After Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, published his book "The Third Industrial Revolution", Li immediately asked China's economic planner and government think tank to pay close attention to this research and made his latest instruction early last month.

It was also him who instructed the Development Research Center of the State Council to study the concepts of the "middle-income trap" and "inclusive growth" as proposed by the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank.

After a leading overseas science magazine published research predicting that combustible ice in the sea could become a revolutionary substitute energy source, Li instructed the Ministry of Land and Resources to follow relevant studies.

Li loves books and has a good memory. Through divergent thinking, he can link the research of many frontier issues with classical Chinese works, according to sources close to him.

After ten years of study at Peking University, Li earned a bachelor's degree in law and a doctorate in economics and has excelled in China's officialdom due to his academic accomplishments and international perspective.

His doctoral dissertation, "On the Tri-structure of China's Economy," won him the Sun Yefang Prize, the top honor for economic sciences on the Chinese mainland.

The erudite leader has also shown enthusiasm and open-mindedness in foreign affairs. Early last year, he visited Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, attending 46 activities in nine days. He contributed signed articles to influential media in each host country to explain China's development and conducted in-depth exchanges with foreign statesmen to facilitate Sino-European cooperation.

In October 2011, Li led a delegation to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

It was the first time a Chinese leader had visited the two countries back-to-back, as well as a significant diplomatic maneuver taken by China to facilitate peace in northeast Asia.

During his April trip to Europe, which included stops in Russia, Hungary, Belgium and the EU headquarters in Brussels, Li gave speeches, attended economic activities and conducted exchanges with foreign statesmen.

At the first EU-China Urbanization Partnership High-Level Conference, Li and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso signed a joint declaration to cement cooperation on sustainable urban development.

During his meeting with then Russian President-elect and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Li proposed a mutually beneficial solution emphasizing upstream and downstream integration, which injected new momentum into China-Russia oil and gas cooperation.

Born in 1955 in east China's Anhui province, Li spent his formative years studying sinology, or Chinese language and culture, from Li Cheng, a master of Chinese culture with the Anhui Provincial Research Institute of Cultural History.

This rare experience, combined with his later education at Peking University, turned him into a learned, eloquent person with a quick wit, according to his acquaintances.

He also prefers to make impromptu speeches, talk face-to-face, ask in-depth questions, find the nature of problems and create solutions on the spot if possible, they say.