Li was born Bo Wangzhi in 1977 to Bo Xilai, then a manual laborer at a factory in Beijing, and Li Danyu, an army surgeon and daughter of the Chinese politician
Li Xuefeng. On his fourth birthday, June 20, 1981, his father surprised his mother by asking for a divorce. She refused, but moved out of their home at
Zhongnanhai. The case went to court and, despite years of petitions and reports filed by Li, who alleged that Bo had an affair with
Gu Kailai, the divorce was finalized in 1984. After his parents' divorce, Bo Wangzhi changed his surname to Li at his mother's insistence. In 1990, when
Bo Yibo retired, Li moved into
Zhongnanhai to live with his grandfather; he rarely saw his father, Bo Xilai, and barely associated with him during the latter's political heyday. In 1996, Li graduated from
Peking University Law School with an
LLB degree. After working as counsel for
Sun Media Group, founded by
Bruno Wu and
Yang Lan, Bo entered
Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 2001, reportedly through the arrangement by Yang, who had been a member of the Dean's Advisory Board of SIPA. SIPA denied the report. While studying at Columbia University, Li befriended his classmate
Tang Boqiao, a former Tiananmen student leader, who attributed Li's pro-democracy leanings and sympathy for dissidents to his mother's longtime petitioning over her divorce in Beijing. Their friendship ended when the
CCP forbade Li to associate with the dissident. Li also met his wife, daughter of a Dalian entrepreneur, at Columbia. After the couple married in China,
Gu Kailai, Bo's second wife, pressured Bo, then governor of Liaoning, to revoke the import and export rights of Li's father-in-law's company. Li graduated from Columbia in 2003 with a master's degree in international affairs. He was then hired by
Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited, before becoming a businessman, active in Dalian and Beijing. In late 2004, Li became a founding partner of the Lao Niu Foundation, a private foundation established by the Niu Gensheng family. After passing the PRC bar in 2005, he became a practicing lawyer affiliated with Zhong Jing Law Firm in Beijing. In 2007, Li founded an investment consultancy named "Chong'er," which was in close collaboration with Lao Niu Foundation, and adopted the pseudonym "Xiaobai". Historically,
Chong'er, the son of
Duke Xian of Jin during the
Spring and Autumn period, fled his home after being persecuted by his father's concubine and her son, both of whom eventually died in court infighting and Chong'er returned to take power as
Duke Wen of Jin.
Xiaobai, the brother of
Duke Xiang of Qi during the same era, also fled his home to avoid the chaos under his brother's rule. After Duke Xiang of Qi was assassinated by a minister, Xiaobai returned for the throne, becoming
Duke Huan of Qi. Li remarked publicly that his father's arrest in 2012 "destroyed his life," leaving him unemployed for a period of time. In August 2013, he attended the opening session of Bo's trial, while Bo's second son,
Bo Guagua, remained in the United States. It was the first time Li saw his father after the funeral of his grandfather in 2007. At the trial, Bo referred to his eldest son as "Bo Wangzhi": "Gu Kailai went to great lengths to convince me that Bo Guagua was capable, while Bo Wangzhi was not." The elder Bo also expressed regret over their six-year alienation caused by the "12/06 Special Case", during which he was unaware that Li had gotten married and had a child. == References ==