Li Rui

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Li Rui (politician)
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In this Chinese name, the family name is Li.
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Li Rui
李锐
Vice-Minister of Water Resources
In office
1958–1958
Personal details
Born(1917-04-14)14 April 1917
Pingjiang County, Hunan, China
Died16 February 2019(2019-02-16) (aged 101)
Beijing, China
Resting placeBabaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery
Political partyCCP
Spouses
  • Fan Yuanzhen (范元甄)
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1939⁠–⁠1944)​
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1945⁠–⁠1962)​
  • Zhang Yuzhen (张玉珍)
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1979)​
Children3
Hanyu Pinyin
Lǐ Ruì
IPA[lì ɻwêɪ]

Li Rui (simplified Chinese: 李锐; traditional Chinese: 李銳; pinyin: Lǐ Ruì; 14 April 1917 – 16 February 2019) was a Chinese politician, historian and dissident Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member.

As a young student activist, Li joined the Communists in 1937 during the

Ministry of Water Resources. His vocal opposition to the proposed Three Gorges Dam brought him to the attention of the Chairman of the CCP, Mao Zedong. Li impressed Mao, who made him his personal secretary for industrial affairs. However, Li was known for his independence of thought, and defied Mao at the 1959 Lushan Conference. Li was expelled from the party and sent to a prison camp, beginning nearly twenty years of political exile. Denounced by his family for anti-Mao activities during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, he spent eight years in solitary confinement at the Qincheng Prison
.

After

Mao's death, Li's party membership was restored. He regained an influential position in the CCP but, after only a few years, was forced to resign because he was unwilling to favor the children of influential party members. From the mid-1980s, shut out of formal power, Li wrote and commentated extensively, calling for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and democracy within a socialist framework. He also wrote five books on Mao and early Communist Party history. Li remained a party member until his death, respected but isolated; his views were formally denounced and he was censored in the Chinese press. Li died in 2019, aged 101. He was described by The Guardian in 2005 as living a life "filled with rebellions, often at great personal cost, against those who abused their power".[1]

Early life

Li Rui was born Li Housheng (李厚生) in Pingjiang County, Hunan Province, in April 1917, to a wealthy family.[2][3] His father had been a member of the Tongmenghui, an anti-imperial revolutionary party.[3][4] Li's father died in 1922, when Li was only five.[3] As a high schooler living in Hubei, Li protested against warlordism.[1] In 1934, he enrolled in Wuhan University, studying mechanical engineering.[5] In 1935, he helped lead a student protest against the failure of the Chinese government to oppose Japanese aggression.[1][4]

Political career

Young Communist activist

Li secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party in February 1937.[2][6] A dedicated activist, he was briefly jailed by the Republic of China's Kuomintang government for communist activities.[6] Li trekked on foot to the Communist base in Yan'an in the late 1930s, a journey of approximately 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) – upon his departure from home, his mother told him, "The Communists are good, but you might get killed".[6]

From December 1939, he led the propaganda branch of the party's Central Youth Working Committee. Li and his first wife, Fan Yuanzhen (范元甄), were married the same month.[7] He became the editor of domestic commentary for the Jiefang Daily (解放日报) in September 1941 and later the newspaper's head of the editorial bureau for areas under Communist control.[2][6] He also served as a secretary to Chen Yun, who would later be an architect of China's economic reform under Deng Xiaoping.[8] Li co-founded another newspaper, Qingqidui (轻骑队), which satirised the Communist leadership, resulting in his imprisonment from 1943 to 1944 as a suspected spy during the rectification campaign.[4][6] During his imprisonment, Li and his wife were briefly divorced, separating in June 1944 and remarrying in June 1945. They had two daughters and a son; their son, the eldest, was born in 1946.[3][7]

In 1945, Li was made the secretary to

Ministry of Water Resources.[2] By 1958, he had risen to become its deputy head, the youngest vice-minister in China.[3][6] He attracted the attention of China's leader, Mao Zedong, through his passionate opposition to the proposed Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. Mao invited Li to Beijing to argue on the issue, and was impressed by his zeal and intelligence.[3] Many years later, Li's personality was described as "blunt, brash, and quick-witted" in The New York Times' obituary.[3] Although Li supported the use of hydropower over coal power, he warned that a large dam on the Yangtze would lead to cost overruns and organisational conundrums. Li reported to Mao that the dam would do little to solve downstream flooding, as many large tributaries enter the Yangtze after the planned dam location. He successfully persuaded Mao to postpone the start of the project.[4][9]

Secretary for Mao, labour camp and exile

Li's employer Mao Zedong (1893–1976) pictured in 1959

Mao hired Li as his personal secretary for industrial affairs in 1958,[6] but Li's criticisms of the Great Leap Forward and support for Peng Dehuai soon became an issue.[10] At a 1959 meeting in Lushan, Li insisted on opposing Mao's views.[3] Li later declared that Mao was dismissive of the suffering caused by his policies, "Mao's way of thinking and governing was terrifying. He put no value on human life. The deaths of others meant nothing to him".[1]

Li was denounced as an anti-Mao conspirator and sent to a penal camp in Heilongjiang near the border with the Soviet Union.[4] He came close to starving, but was saved by a transfer to a more survivable camp arranged by outside friends.[3] Stripped of his Communist Party membership, Li was offered early release if he was willing to renounce his criticisms of Mao, but declined to do so.[3] Released in 1961, Li returned to Beijing.[3] After nearly 22 years of marriage, his wife, Fan, denounced him and divorced him again, this time for good.[3][7] Li was then sent to teach at a small school in the mountains, exiling him from political processes.[3] One of his daughters, Li Nanyang (李南央), became estranged from him after reporting anti-Mao remarks he had made in private.[3]

In 1966, Mao's Cultural Revolution began, and Li was asked to denounce his old colleagues among Mao's private secretaries. Refusing to do so, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement at the Qincheng Prison.[3][8] Li maintained his grip on sanity by writing poetry in the margins of Communist books using iodine pilfered from the prison's medical facilities.[3] Li was released in 1975 and sent back to his internal exile, returning to teaching at the same school in the mountains.[3]

Return to prominence

Mao's death in 1976 and the emergence of Deng Xiaoping, Li regained his CCP membership.[3] In 1979, he became vice-minister of the Ministry of Electric Industry, serving for three years.[2][4] The same year, Li remarried; his second wife (and later widow) was Zhang Yuzhen (张玉珍).[11][12] In 1982, he was elected to the Central Committee for a five-year term, and in April of the same year he became vice director of the Organisation Department of the CCP, an influential role focused on the promotion, demotion, and recruitment of senior officials.[2][8][13] In 1983, under the direction of Song Renqiong and Xi Zhongxun, Li helped lead the second official investigation into the Guangxi Massacre.[14] In 1984 he was forced to resign from his role at the Organisation Department because, according to The New York Times, he refused to "give special preference to the offspring of senior officials".[3][13]

Li, whose opposition to the Three Gorges Dam had played a major role in his earlier career, continued to fight against construction of the dam throughout the 1980s, working with environmentalist

Tiananmen Square protests, strengthening his opposition to the party's authoritarian wing.[1][16][17] He was an ally of prominent reformists such as Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang.[8]

Party elder, historian and dissident

Whenever there's a clash between the party and humanity, I insist on humanity.

Li Rui, interviewed by the BBC at age 100 in 2017[18]

After officially retiring in June 1995 at age 78,

Propaganda Department banned Li from being published in the media.[20] His books on Mao were censored and banned in Mainland China.[6] Described as a thorn in the side of the Communist Party's autocratic leaders (his personal name, Rui 锐, means 'sharp' in Chinese), his views were secretly but officially denounced as subversive in 2013.[6][8]

Before every quinquennial

Anti-Rightist Movement, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.[21][22] In 2006, he was a lead signatory to an open letter condemning the state's closure of the investigative newspaper Freezing Point (冰点).[23] Ahead of the 17th Communist Party Congress in 2007, Li and retired academic Xie Tao published articles calling for the Communist Party to become a European-style socialist party, remarks that were condemned by the party propaganda apparatus.[24] In October 2010, Li was the lead signatory to an open letter to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, calling for greater press freedom.[25] In 2017, he failed to attend the 19th Party Congress, which was seen as an act of defiance against General Secretary Xi Jinping's elevation above collective leadership.[8] Having devoted his life to the Communist Party, Li never considered leaving it.[3] When readmitted to the party in the 1970s, he had hoped that it had changed, but was disappointed, and later wrote of its "arrogance, ignorance, shamelessness, lawlessness".[6]

Death and funeral

Li during hospitalisation in April 2018

As he aged, Li retained his mental sharpness. In spite of his political views, he was allowed to keep his privileges as a senior CCP member, such as better medical treatment and his apartment in Minister's House, a building reserved for venerated party retirees.[1][26]

Li died of

organ failure in Beijing on 16 February 2019, aged 101.[3][27] As an early and senior member of the Communist Party, Li was given a state funeral and buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, despite his desire to be interred with his parents in Hunan, his home province.[6] News of his death was limited by official censorship and, according to the South China Morning Post, his funeral was "conducted with secrecy and security".[12] Despite the restrictions, the funeral attracted hundreds of mourners, ranging from ordinary Chinese citizens to those few still living among his old colleagues and fellow revolutionaries.[11] Notwithstanding his fervent opposition to their policies, both of China's leaders, General Secretary Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, sent wreaths.[11]

Li kept a diary continuously from 1935 until 2018. The diary, along with Li's other papers, was the subject of a lawsuit in 2019. Li's widow, Zhang, and daughter, Li Nanyang, both claimed ownership over the diary; Zhang wished it to be returned to China. The case was decided in favour of Li Nanyang, who had donated the diary to the Hoover Institution in the American state of California.[16][28]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Watts, Jonathan (1 June 2005). "China must confront dark past, says Mao confidant". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  2. ^
    Xinhuanet (in Chinese (China)). Archived from the original
    on 19 January 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  3. ^
    ISSN 0362-4331. Archived
    from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  4. ^
    OCLC 432428521
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4766-0298-1
    .
  6. ^
    ISSN 0013-0613. Archived
    from the original on 11 March 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  7. ^
    OCLC 421522811
    .
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Huang, Cary; Mai, Jun (16 February 2019). "Mao's personal secretary and biggest critic Li Rui dies at 101". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  9. ^
    JSTOR 24357784. Archived
    from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  10. ISBN 978-1-4422-6468-7
    .
  11. ^
    ISSN 0362-4331. Archived
    from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  12. ^ a b Mai, Jun (20 February 2019). "In death as in life, Li Rui makes China's Communists uncomfortable". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8108-7225-7
    .
  14. OCLC 1320816928
    .
  15. ^ Gan, Nectar (31 July 2020). "China's Three Gorges Dam is one of the largest ever created. Was it worth it?". CNN. Archived from the original on 15 October 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  16. ^ a b Guo, Rui (25 April 2019). "Widow of Mao's secretary demands return of diaries from US". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  17. ^ 記六四鎮壓 十里長街槍聲近 李銳日記：事已做絕，何以對天下 [Li Rui's diary recalling the June 4th crackdown: gunshots along Lichang Street]. Ming Pao (in Chinese). 27 May 2019. Archived from the original on 16 October 2019. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  18. ^ Grace, Carrie (13 April 2017). "China's extraordinary red rebel turns 100". BBC News. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  19. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived
    from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  20. ^ Volland, Nicolai (16 May 2014). "Fifty Influential Public Intellectuals". Heidelberg University. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  21. OCLC 368023586. Archived
    from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  22. S2CID 144345972. Archived
    from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  23. ^ "Party elders attack China censors". BBC News. 14 February 2006. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  24. ^ Lam, Willy (11 October 2007). "Hu Jintao Battles the CCP's Crisis of Confidence". Jamestown Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007.
  25. ^ "Open letter calls for end to media censorship". South China Morning Post. 13 October 2010. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  26. ^ Kuo, Lily (18 February 2019). "Daughter of Mao Zedong's personal secretary boycotts funeral". The Guardian. Beijing. Archived from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  27. ^ "Mao Zedong qian mishu Li Rui guoshi shangnian 101 sui" 毛泽东前秘书李锐过世 享年101岁 [Mao Zedong's former secretary Li Rui dies aged 101]. Lianhe Zaobao (in Chinese (Singapore)). 16 February 2019. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  28. ^ Areddy, James T. (15 September 2021). "A Former Mao Aide's Diaries Spark a Custody Battle Over an Unofficial History of China". The Wall Street Journal. News Corp. Retrieved 17 April 2023.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Li Rui; interview by Voice of America in 2018 (in Mandarin Chinese).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Li_Rui&oldid=1215382150"