China’s Vice-President Li Yuanchao to attend Lee Kuan Yew's funeral

Vice-President Li Yuanchao will be the most senior Chinese official to attend the state funeral of Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, while President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will not attend, Beijing has confirmed.

The state funeral of Singapore's founding father, who died on Monday, will be held in Singapore tomorrow.

Li Yuanchao is not among the top seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee but is a lower-ranking leader of the Politburo.

India, meanwhile, will observe a national day of mourning tomorrow as a mark of respect for Lee, with the Indian flag to be flown at half-mast across the country and no official entertainment scheduled that day, according to Indian media reports.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing yesterday: "As I understand, Vice-President Li Yuanchao will represent China to go to Singapore to attend the funeral of former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. The relevant information will be officially announced very soon."

Former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa will be the city's most senior official to attend the state funeral.

On Thursday, Xi and Li Keqiang sent wreaths to the Singaporean embassy in Beijing to express their condolences over the death of the first prime minister of independent Singapore, the Foreign Ministry said.

Four members of the Politburo Standing Committee - Xi, Li Keqiang, National People's Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang and Executive Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli - sent their condolences on Monday.

Li Yuanchao also attended the state funeral of the first South African post-apartheid president Nelson Mandela in December 2013.

Former US president Bill Clinton will lead the US delegation attending Lee's funeral, along with former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

From Wednesday to yesterday morning, more than 200,000 visitors paid their respects to Lee, queuing up to see his body, which will lie in state at Singapore's Parliament House until today. More than 400,000 people had also paid their respects at community centres across the island nation, Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said.

On Thursday and yesterday, people were waiting up to 10 hours to bow before Lee's coffin. The government urged people to pay their respects at community centres instead.