Early career during the Civil War (1946) Born in
Hong'an,
Hubei, Li came from a poor family and spent his teenage years working at a
carpenter's shop. He joined the
Chinese Communist Party in December 1927, and served as an army captain and
political commissar for the Chinese Red Army during the
Long March. He was a military cadre in
Zhang Guotao West Route Army. Despite losing his job as Finance Minister in 1970, he nonetheless enjoyed
Zhou Enlai's protection and was the only civilian official to serve without interruption alongside Zhou throughout the 1966–1976 Cultural Revolution decade. In 1976, Li played an instrumental role in destroying the
Gang Of Four. After the demise of the Gang, Li was appointed
Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and a member of the
Central Military Commission.
Post-Mao politician When Chairman
Hua Guofeng rose to leadership after the
death of Mao Zedong, Li became Hua's chief economic adviser and one of his main backers, along with Generals
Wang Dongxing and
Chen Xilian. If Hua had been successful in his efforts to achieve supreme power, Li would have become one of the most powerful officials in China, but Li's political career stalled when
Deng Xiaoping eclipsed Hua as China's "
Paramount leader". For the rest of his career, Li complained that his own achievements during the brief Hua interregnum were not sufficiently recognized as the basis of the progress experienced in China during the 1980s. Li was described as an "orthodox" or "Soviet-style" communist and was a firm believer in central planning and sociopolitical conformity, so disliked Deng Xiaoping's more radical economic reform ideas. He had in fact been largely responsible for drafting the short-lived Ten Year Plan of 1978 which attempted to build a Soviet-style economy based around heavy industry and energy production. Li's ideas enjoyed strong support among some sections of the Chinese top leadership; General
Yu Qiuli and his "
oil clique", for example, fully supported Li. However, Deng quickly terminated these ideas and instituted his own "go slow" approach that involved gradually allowing the development of light industry and consumer goods. He also went about assigning government posts to younger men who were followers of his ideas. One of these was Premier
Zhao Ziyang, whom Li strongly opposed for being too willing to import Western ideas and move away from a planned economy. According to Zhao, Li "hated me because I was implementing Deng Xiaoping's reforms, but since it was difficult for him to openly oppose Deng, he made me the target of his opposition." Li visited the United States in July 1985, the first time the head of state of the People's Republic of China made such a visit. As the decade progressed, Deng Xiaoping, always an opponent of lifetime tenure in office, gradually convinced most of the party elders to retire. Li stepped down as president in 1988 and was succeeded by
Yang Shangkun. Li was then named
Chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC. He was a strong supporter of
Jiang Zemin's rise to power, and during the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Li was one of the hardline Party elders who pushed for a strong response to the demonstrations and supported Premier
Li Peng's desire to use military force to suppress the protests. Li continued to serve in government until his death in 1992, one year before his term expired. ==Family==