Li was born in
Shijiazhuang,
Hebei province. In 1968, he began working for the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps as a soldier and labourer. He joined the
Chinese Communist Party in March 1974, in the latter stages of the
Cultural Revolution. In 1977, he became a factory worker at a pharmaceutical plant in Beijing. After the Cultural Revolution, he attended
Beijing University of Chemical Technology, where he studied polymers. He stayed at his alma mater after graduation to become an instructor. In 1984 he joined the National Science Commission, where he began to climb through the organization's administrative ranks. On December 7, 2010, he was named acting
governor of Jiangsu province, confirmed on February 14, 2011. He retired in November 2015 due to mandated retirement rules, which called for the retirement of all provincial-ministerial level officials at age 65; he was succeeded by
Shi Taifeng. In 2015, he joined the
National People's Congress Financial and Economic Affairs Committee as a deputy chair. In March 2018, he was appointed the director of the
National People's Congress Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee. Li was a member of the
17th and
18th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party. ==References==