Li Peng
Encyclopedia
Li Peng served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China, between 1987 and 1998, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee
of the National People's Congress
, China's top legislative body, from 1998 to 2003. For much of the 1990s Li was ranked second in the Communist Party of China
(CPC) hierarchy behind then General Secretary Jiang Zemin
. He retained his seat on the Politburo Standing Committee
until 2002.
As Premier, Li was the most visible representative of China's government who backed the use of force to quell the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
. During the Tiananmen protests of 1989, Li used his authority as Premier to declare martial law
, and in cooperation with Deng Xiaoping
, who was the Chairman of the Central Military Commission
, to order the June 1989 military crackdown against student pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square
, Beijing
. Li also advocated for a largely conservative approach with Chinese economic reform
, which placed him at odds with former Premier Zhao Ziyang
, who fell out of favour after 1989. As Premier, Li oversaw a rapidly growing economy, and attempted to decentralize and downsize the Chinese bureaucracy, to varying degrees of success. He was at the helm of the controversial Three Gorges Dam
project.
, the capital of Sichuan
Province. He is a Hakka
, the son of writer Li Shuoxun
, one of the earliest CPC revolutionaries, who was the political commissar of the Twentieth Division during the Nanchang Uprising
. In 1931 Li was orphaned at age three when his father was executed by the Kuomintang
for treason and for support of armed splittism. He became the adopted son of Zhou Enlai
, famed in China as the strong supporter of Mao Zedong
.
In 1938 Zhou adopted Li in Wuhan
, during the Second Sino-Japanese War
. When the Kuomintang
government abandoned Wuhan in 1939, Zhou brought Li to Chongqing
, where Li was enrolled in middle school. In 1941, when Li was twelve, Zhou sent Li to Yan'an
, where Li studied until 1945. As a seventeen year old, in 1945, Li joined the Communist Party of China.
, Li gained a technical background. In 1941 he began studying at the Institute of Natural Science (the former Beijing Institute of Technology
) in Yan'an
. In 1948 he was sent to study at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute
, majoring in hydroelectric
engineering. A year later, in 1949, Zhou Enlai became Premier of the newly declared People's Republic of China. Li graduated in 1954. During his time in the USSR, Li was the Chairman of the Chinese Students Association in the Soviet Union.
When Li returned to China, in 1955, the country was firmly under the control of the Communist Party. From the time of his return until 1979, Li engineered and managed a number of major power projects across China, beginning his career in Manchuria
. Li survived the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution
unscathed, due largely to his placement as director and Party secretary of the powerful and influential Beijing Electric Power Administration (from 1966–1980), and due to his family contacts in powerful Communist circles.
Li advanced politically after the ascent of Deng Xiaoping
, and served as the Vice-Minister and Minister of Power between 1979 and 1983. In 1982-1983 Li served as the vice-minister of Water Conservancy and Power. Much of Li's rapid political promotion was due to the support of Party elder Chen Yun
.
Li joined the Central Committee
at the Twelfth National Congress
in 1982. In 1985 he was named minister of the State Education Commission, and was elected to the Politburo
and the Party Secretariat. In 1987 Li became a member of the powerful Standing Committee
.
raised Li to the role of Premier
. As Premier, Li succeeded Zhao Ziyang
, who had been promoted from Premier to become the Communist Party's General Secretary
. Shortly after this promotion, Li would play a major role in ending Zhao's career, after Zhao publicly supported demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. At the time of his promotion, Li seened like an unusual choice for Premier because he did not seem to share Deng's enthusiasm for introducing market reforms. Li was raised to the position of Premier thanks partially to the departure of Hu Yaobang
, who was forced to resign as General Secretary after the Party blamed him for a series of student-led protests in 1987.
Throughout the 1980s, political dissent and social problems, including inflation, urban migration, and school overcrowding, became great problems in China. Despite these acute challenges, Li shifted his focus away from the day-to-day concerns of energy, communications, and raw materials allocation, and took a more active role in the ongoing inter-party debate on the pace of market reforms. Politically, Li opposed the modern economic reforms pioneered by Zhao Ziyang throughout Zhao's years of public service. While students and intellectuals urged greater reforms, some party elders increasingly feared that the instability opened up by any significant reforms would threaten to undermine the authority of the Communist Party, which Li had spent his career attempting to strengthen.
After Zhao became General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
, his proposals in May 1988 to expand free enterprise led to popular complaints (which some suggest were politically inspired) about inflation fears. Public fears about the negative effects of market reforms gave conservatives (including Li Peng) the opening to call for greater centralization of economic controls and stricter prohibitions against Western influences, especially opposing further expansion of Zhao's more free enterprise-oriented approach. This precipitated a political debate, which grew more heated through the winter of 1988-1989.
began with the mass mourning over the death of Hu Yaobang
, widely perceived to have been purged for his support of political liberalization. On the eve of Hu's funeral, 100,000 people gathered at Tiananmen Square. Beijing students began the demonstrations to encourage continued economic reform and liberalization, and these demonstrations soon evolved into a mass movement for political reform. From Tiananmen Square, the protesters later expanded into the surrounding streets. Non-violent protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai
and Wuhan
. Looting and rioting occurred in various locations throughout China, including Xi'an
and Changsha.
The Tiananmen protests were partially protests against the affluence of the children of high-ranking Communist Party officials, and the perception that second-generation officials had received their fortunes through exploiting their parents' influence. Li, whose family has often been at the center of corruption allegations within the Chinese power industry, was vulnerable to these charges.
In an editorial
published in the People's Daily on April 26, Deng Xiaoping denounced the demonstrations as "premeditated and organized turmoil with anti-Party and anti-socialist motives". This article had the effect of worsening the demonstrations by angering its leaders, who then made their demands more extreme. Zhao Ziyang later wrote in his autobiography that, although Deng had stated many of these sentiments in a private conversation with Li Peng shortly before the editorial was written, Li had these comments disseminated to Party members and published as the editorial without Deng's knowledge or consent.
Li strictly refused to negotiate with the Tiananmen protesters out of principle, and became one of the officials most objected to by protesters. One of the protest's key leaders, Wang Dan
, during a hunger strike, publicly scolded Li on National Television for ignoring the needs of the people. Some observers say that Wang's statements insulted Li personally, hardening his resolve to end the protest by violent means.
Among the other senior members of the central government, Li became the one who most strongly favored violence. After winning the support of most of his colleagues, including Deng Xiaoping, Li officially declared martial law in Beijing on May 20, 1989, initiating the "Tiananmen Square Massacre". Most estimates of the dead range from several hundred to several thousand people. Li later described the crackdown as a historic victory for Communism, and wrote that he feared the protests would be as potentially damaging to China as the Cultural Revolution
(1966–1976) had been.
In the immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen protests, Li took a leading role in a national austerity program, intended to slow economic growth and inflation and re-centralize the economy. Li worked to increase taxes on agriculture and export-industries, and increased salaries to less-efficient industries owned by the government. Li directed a tight monetary policy, implementing price controls on many commodities, supporting higher interest rates, and cutting off state loans to private and cooperative sectors in attempts to reduce inflation.
Li suffered a heart attack in 1993, and began to lose influence within the Party to vice-premier Zhu Rongji
, a strong advocate for economic liberalization. In that year, when Li made his annual work report to the Politburo, he was forced to make over seventy changes in order to make the plans acceptable to Deng. Perhaps realizing that opposition to capitalism would be poorly received by Deng and other Party elders, Li publicly supported Deng's economic reforms. Li was reappointed Premier in 1993, despite a large protest vote for Zhu. Zhu Rongji eventually succeeded Li when Li's second term expired, in 1998.
Li began two megaproject
s when he was the Premier. He initiated the construction of the Three Gorges Dam
on December 14, 1994, and later began preparations for the Shenzhou Manned Space Program
. Both programs were subject to much controversy within China and abroad. The Shenzhou program was especially criticized due to its extraordinary cost (tens of billions of dollars) in a country that sometimes referred to itself as a Third World nation. Many economists and humanitarians suggested that those billions in capital might be better invested in helping the Chinese population deal with economic hardships and improvement in the China's education, health services, and legal system.
. Support for Li for the largely ceremonial position was low, as he only received less than 90% of the vote at the 1998 National People's Congress, where he was the only candidate. He spent much of his time monitoring what he considers his life's work, the Three Gorges Dam
. Li's interest in the Dam reflects his earlier career as a hydraulic engineer, and he spent much of his career presiding over a vast and growing power industry while in office. He considers himself a builder and a modernizer.
, is considered to be his protégé. Since the 17th Party Congress
, Li's influence has considerably waned and he is no longer active on China's political scene, partially owing to the corruption issues that plague him and his family.
Li spent much of the 1990s expanding and managing an energy monopoly, State Power Corp. Because the company was staffed by Li's relatives, Li's management effectively transformed China's energy industry into a "family fiefdom". At its height, Li's power company controlled 72% of all energy-producing assets in China, and was ranked as the sixtieth-largest company in the world by US magazine Fortune
. After Li's departure from government, Li's energy monopoly was split into five smaller companies by the Chinese government.
In the Western media, Li is generally viewed as "widely hated" for his dominant role in endorsing the bloody crackdown on dissidents following the Tiananmen protests. He is generally unpopular in China, where he "has long been a figure of scorn and suspicion".
In 2010, Li's autobiographical book, The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries
, was published by New Century Press. The Critical Moment covers Li's activities during the period of the Tiananmen Square protests, and was published on the protests' twenty-first anniversary. The Critical Moment had been available to publishers since 2004, when it was to be published on the protests' fifteenth anniversary, but was delayed due to legal reasons. New Century Press is run by Bao Pu, the son of Bao Tong
, who was an aide to Li's rival, Zhao Ziyang. Bao Pu was also an editor for Zhao's autobiography, Prisoner of the State
. Bao stated that he initially had some doubts about the book's authenticity, but that these were mostly resolved by the time of the book's publication. The book was initially published only in Chinese.
; Li's daughter, Li Xiaolin
; and, Li's younger son, Li Xiaoyong. Li Xiaoyong is married to Ye Xiaoyan, the daughter of Communist veteran Ye Ting
's second son, Ye Zhengming.
Li's family benefited from Li's high position during the 1980s and 1990s. Two of Li's children, Li Xiaopeng and Li Xiaolin, inherited and ran two of China's electrical monopolies. State-run Chinese media have publicly questioned whether it is in China's long-term interest to preserve the "new class of monopoly state capitalists" that Li's family represents. Li Xiaopeng became the Vice-Governor of Shanxi
in 2008.
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is a committee of about 150 members of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China , which is convened between plenary sessions of the NPC. It has the constitutional authority to modify legislation within limits set by...
of the National People's Congress
National People's Congress
The National People's Congress , abbreviated NPC , is the highest state body and the only legislative house in the People's Republic of China. The National People's Congress is held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China; with 2,987 members, it is the...
, China's top legislative body, from 1998 to 2003. For much of the 1990s Li was ranked second in the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
(CPC) hierarchy behind then General Secretary Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin is a former Chinese politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2005...
. He retained his seat on the Politburo Standing Committee
Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China
The Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Communist Party of China, whose membership varies between 5 and 9 people. The inner workings of the PSC are not well known, although it is believed that decisions of the PSC are...
until 2002.
As Premier, Li was the most visible representative of China's government who backed the use of force to quell the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
. During the Tiananmen protests of 1989, Li used his authority as Premier to declare martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
, and in cooperation with Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
, who was the Chairman of the Central Military Commission
Chairman of the Central Military Commission
The Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China has overall responsibility for the Central Military Commission. According to Chapter 3, Section 4 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, "The Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of...
, to order the June 1989 military crackdown against student pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. Li also advocated for a largely conservative approach with Chinese economic reform
Chinese economic reform
The Chinese economic reform refers to the program of economic reforms called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the People's Republic of China that were started in December 1978 by reformists within the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.China had one of the world's largest...
, which placed him at odds with former Premier Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China . He was the third Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989....
, who fell out of favour after 1989. As Premier, Li oversaw a rapidly growing economy, and attempted to decentralize and downsize the Chinese bureaucracy, to varying degrees of success. He was at the helm of the controversial Three Gorges Dam
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province, China...
project.
Childhood
Li was born in Shanghai, but with ancestral roots in ChengduChengdu
Chengdu , formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status...
, the capital of Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
Province. He is a Hakka
Hakka
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....
, the son of writer Li Shuoxun
Li Shuoxun
Li Shuoxun, born 1903 in Sichuan. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1924. After the Communist - Kuomintang split in 1927 he was an underground leader. In 1931 he went to Hainan, was caught by his enemies and executed. He is now commemorated there as a revolutionary martyr.His son, Li...
, one of the earliest CPC revolutionaries, who was the political commissar of the Twentieth Division during the Nanchang Uprising
Nanchang Uprising
The Nanchang Uprising was the first major Kuomintang-Communist engagement of the Chinese Civil War, in order to counter the anti-communist purges by the Nationalist Party of China....
. In 1931 Li was orphaned at age three when his father was executed by the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
for treason and for support of armed splittism. He became the adopted son of Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
, famed in China as the strong supporter of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
.
In 1938 Zhou adopted Li in Wuhan
Wuhan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...
, during the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
. When the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
government abandoned Wuhan in 1939, Zhou brought Li to Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
, where Li was enrolled in middle school. In 1941, when Li was twelve, Zhou sent Li to Yan'an
Yan'an
Yan'an , is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China, administering several counties, including Zhidan County , which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role....
, where Li studied until 1945. As a seventeen year old, in 1945, Li joined the Communist Party of China.
Early career
Like other Communist Party cadres of the third generationGenerations of Chinese leadership
Because both the Communist Party of China and the People's Liberation Army promote according to seniority, it is possible to discern distinct generations of Chinese leadership...
, Li gained a technical background. In 1941 he began studying at the Institute of Natural Science (the former Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing Institute of Technology , formerly known as 北京工业学院, is a leading public, co-educational, national key university, located in Beijing, China. Established in 1940 in Yan'an , the university used to be administered by the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense...
) in Yan'an
Yan'an
Yan'an , is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China, administering several counties, including Zhidan County , which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role....
. In 1948 he was sent to study at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute
Moscow Power Engineering Institute
Moscow Power Engineering Institute is one of the largest and leading technical universities in the world in the area of power engineering, electronics and IT...
, majoring in hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
engineering. A year later, in 1949, Zhou Enlai became Premier of the newly declared People's Republic of China. Li graduated in 1954. During his time in the USSR, Li was the Chairman of the Chinese Students Association in the Soviet Union.
When Li returned to China, in 1955, the country was firmly under the control of the Communist Party. From the time of his return until 1979, Li engineered and managed a number of major power projects across China, beginning his career in Manchuria
Northeast China
Northeast China, historically known in English as Manchuria, is a geographical region of China, consisting of the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The region is sometimes called the Three Northeast Provinces...
. Li survived the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
unscathed, due largely to his placement as director and Party secretary of the powerful and influential Beijing Electric Power Administration (from 1966–1980), and due to his family contacts in powerful Communist circles.
Li advanced politically after the ascent of Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
, and served as the Vice-Minister and Minister of Power between 1979 and 1983. In 1982-1983 Li served as the vice-minister of Water Conservancy and Power. Much of Li's rapid political promotion was due to the support of Party elder Chen Yun
Chen Yun
Chen Yun was one of the most influential leaders of the People's Republic of China during the 1980s and 90s, and one of the top leaders of the Communist Party of China for almost its entire history. He was also known as Liao Chengyun ; it's unclear whether this was his original name or a pseudonym...
.
Li joined the Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is the highest authority within the Communist Party of China. Its approximately 350 members and alternates are selected once every five years by the National Party Congress....
at the Twelfth National Congress
National Congress of the Communist Party of China
The National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a party congress that is held about once every five years. The National Congress is theoretically the highest body within the Communist Party of China, but in practice important decisions are made before the meeting. Since 1987 the National...
in 1982. In 1985 he was named minister of the State Education Commission, and was elected to the Politburo
Politburo of the Communist Party of China
The Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China or Political bureau of the CPC Central Committee , formerly as Central Bureau before 1927, is a group of 24 people who oversee the Communist Party of China...
and the Party Secretariat. In 1987 Li became a member of the powerful Standing Committee
Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China
The Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Communist Party of China, whose membership varies between 5 and 9 people. The inner workings of the PSC are not well known, although it is believed that decisions of the PSC are...
.
Defender of state control
In 1988 Deng XiaopingDeng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
raised Li to the role of Premier
Premier of the People's Republic of China
The Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , sometimes also referred to as the "Prime Minister" informally, is the Leader of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , who is the head of government and holds the highest-ranking of the Civil service of the...
. As Premier, Li succeeded Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China . He was the third Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989....
, who had been promoted from Premier to become the Communist Party's General Secretary
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China , officially General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the highest ranking official within the Communist Party of China, a standing member of the Politburo and head of the Secretariat...
. Shortly after this promotion, Li would play a major role in ending Zhao's career, after Zhao publicly supported demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. At the time of his promotion, Li seened like an unusual choice for Premier because he did not seem to share Deng's enthusiasm for introducing market reforms. Li was raised to the position of Premier thanks partially to the departure of Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang was a leader of the People's Republic of China who served as both Chairman and Party General Secretary. Hu joined the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s, and rose to prominence as a comrade of Deng Xiaoping...
, who was forced to resign as General Secretary after the Party blamed him for a series of student-led protests in 1987.
Throughout the 1980s, political dissent and social problems, including inflation, urban migration, and school overcrowding, became great problems in China. Despite these acute challenges, Li shifted his focus away from the day-to-day concerns of energy, communications, and raw materials allocation, and took a more active role in the ongoing inter-party debate on the pace of market reforms. Politically, Li opposed the modern economic reforms pioneered by Zhao Ziyang throughout Zhao's years of public service. While students and intellectuals urged greater reforms, some party elders increasingly feared that the instability opened up by any significant reforms would threaten to undermine the authority of the Communist Party, which Li had spent his career attempting to strengthen.
After Zhao became General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China , officially General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the highest ranking official within the Communist Party of China, a standing member of the Politburo and head of the Secretariat...
, his proposals in May 1988 to expand free enterprise led to popular complaints (which some suggest were politically inspired) about inflation fears. Public fears about the negative effects of market reforms gave conservatives (including Li Peng) the opening to call for greater centralization of economic controls and stricter prohibitions against Western influences, especially opposing further expansion of Zhao's more free enterprise-oriented approach. This precipitated a political debate, which grew more heated through the winter of 1988-1989.
Tiananmen Square
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
began with the mass mourning over the death of Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang was a leader of the People's Republic of China who served as both Chairman and Party General Secretary. Hu joined the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s, and rose to prominence as a comrade of Deng Xiaoping...
, widely perceived to have been purged for his support of political liberalization. On the eve of Hu's funeral, 100,000 people gathered at Tiananmen Square. Beijing students began the demonstrations to encourage continued economic reform and liberalization, and these demonstrations soon evolved into a mass movement for political reform. From Tiananmen Square, the protesters later expanded into the surrounding streets. Non-violent protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and Wuhan
Wuhan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...
. Looting and rioting occurred in various locations throughout China, including Xi'an
Xi'an
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...
and Changsha.
The Tiananmen protests were partially protests against the affluence of the children of high-ranking Communist Party officials, and the perception that second-generation officials had received their fortunes through exploiting their parents' influence. Li, whose family has often been at the center of corruption allegations within the Chinese power industry, was vulnerable to these charges.
In an editorial
People's Daily editorial of April 26
On the morning of April 25, 1989, members of the Communist Party of China’s Politburo met at the home of Deng Xiaoping to discuss the recent student response to the death of former General Secretary Hu Yaobang. The words exchanged at this meeting were then used to construct the People’s Daily ...
published in the People's Daily on April 26, Deng Xiaoping denounced the demonstrations as "premeditated and organized turmoil with anti-Party and anti-socialist motives". This article had the effect of worsening the demonstrations by angering its leaders, who then made their demands more extreme. Zhao Ziyang later wrote in his autobiography that, although Deng had stated many of these sentiments in a private conversation with Li Peng shortly before the editorial was written, Li had these comments disseminated to Party members and published as the editorial without Deng's knowledge or consent.
Li strictly refused to negotiate with the Tiananmen protesters out of principle, and became one of the officials most objected to by protesters. One of the protest's key leaders, Wang Dan
Wang Dan
Wang Dan , a leader of the Chinese democracy movement, was one of the most visible of the student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Wang holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. From August 2009 to February 2010, Wang taught cross-strait history at Taiwan's National...
, during a hunger strike, publicly scolded Li on National Television for ignoring the needs of the people. Some observers say that Wang's statements insulted Li personally, hardening his resolve to end the protest by violent means.
Among the other senior members of the central government, Li became the one who most strongly favored violence. After winning the support of most of his colleagues, including Deng Xiaoping, Li officially declared martial law in Beijing on May 20, 1989, initiating the "Tiananmen Square Massacre". Most estimates of the dead range from several hundred to several thousand people. Li later described the crackdown as a historic victory for Communism, and wrote that he feared the protests would be as potentially damaging to China as the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
(1966–1976) had been.
Political longevity
Although the Tiananmen crackdown was an "international public relations disaster for China", it ensured that Li would have a long and productive career. He remained powerful, even though he had been one of the main targets of protesters, partially because the leadership believed that limiting Li's career would be the same as admitting that they had made mistakes by suppressing the 1989 protests. By keeping Li at the upper levels of the Party, China's leaders communicated to the world that the country remained stable and united.In the immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen protests, Li took a leading role in a national austerity program, intended to slow economic growth and inflation and re-centralize the economy. Li worked to increase taxes on agriculture and export-industries, and increased salaries to less-efficient industries owned by the government. Li directed a tight monetary policy, implementing price controls on many commodities, supporting higher interest rates, and cutting off state loans to private and cooperative sectors in attempts to reduce inflation.
Li suffered a heart attack in 1993, and began to lose influence within the Party to vice-premier Zhu Rongji
Zhu Rongji
Zhū Róngjī is a prominent Chinese politician who served as the Mayor and Party chief in Shanghai between 1987 and 1991, before serving as Vice-Premier and then the fifth Premier of the People's Republic of China from March 1998 to March 2003.A tough administrator, his time in office saw the...
, a strong advocate for economic liberalization. In that year, when Li made his annual work report to the Politburo, he was forced to make over seventy changes in order to make the plans acceptable to Deng. Perhaps realizing that opposition to capitalism would be poorly received by Deng and other Party elders, Li publicly supported Deng's economic reforms. Li was reappointed Premier in 1993, despite a large protest vote for Zhu. Zhu Rongji eventually succeeded Li when Li's second term expired, in 1998.
Li began two megaproject
Megaproject
A megaproject is an extremely large-scale investment project. Megaprojects are typically defined as costing more than US$1 billion and attracting a lot of public attention because of substantial impacts on communities, environment, and budgets. Megaprojects can also be defined as "initiatives that...
s when he was the Premier. He initiated the construction of the Three Gorges Dam
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province, China...
on December 14, 1994, and later began preparations for the Shenzhou Manned Space Program
Shenzhou spacecraft
Shenzhou is a spacecraft developed and operated by the People's Republic of China to support its manned spaceflight program. The name is variously translated as "Divine Craft," "Divine Vessel of God," "Magic Boat" or similar and is also homophonous with an ancient name for China...
. Both programs were subject to much controversy within China and abroad. The Shenzhou program was especially criticized due to its extraordinary cost (tens of billions of dollars) in a country that sometimes referred to itself as a Third World nation. Many economists and humanitarians suggested that those billions in capital might be better invested in helping the Chinese population deal with economic hardships and improvement in the China's education, health services, and legal system.
Chairmanship of the National People's Congress
Li remained premier until 1998, when he was constitutionally limited to two terms. After his second term expired, he became the chairman of the National People's CongressNational People's Congress
The National People's Congress , abbreviated NPC , is the highest state body and the only legislative house in the People's Republic of China. The National People's Congress is held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China; with 2,987 members, it is the...
. Support for Li for the largely ceremonial position was low, as he only received less than 90% of the vote at the 1998 National People's Congress, where he was the only candidate. He spent much of his time monitoring what he considers his life's work, the Three Gorges Dam
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province, China...
. Li's interest in the Dam reflects his earlier career as a hydraulic engineer, and he spent much of his career presiding over a vast and growing power industry while in office. He considers himself a builder and a modernizer.
Legacy
Although retired and in his early eighties, Li retains some influence in the PSC. The former Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China member Luo GanLuo Gan
Luo Gan is a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China and former Political and Legislative Affairs Committee secretary of the People's Republic of China.-Biography:...
, is considered to be his protégé. Since the 17th Party Congress
17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China
The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, China, at the Great Hall of the People from 15 to 21 October 2007. The Congress marked significant shift in the political direction of the country as CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao solidified his position of leadership...
, Li's influence has considerably waned and he is no longer active on China's political scene, partially owing to the corruption issues that plague him and his family.
Li spent much of the 1990s expanding and managing an energy monopoly, State Power Corp. Because the company was staffed by Li's relatives, Li's management effectively transformed China's energy industry into a "family fiefdom". At its height, Li's power company controlled 72% of all energy-producing assets in China, and was ranked as the sixtieth-largest company in the world by US magazine Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
. After Li's departure from government, Li's energy monopoly was split into five smaller companies by the Chinese government.
In the Western media, Li is generally viewed as "widely hated" for his dominant role in endorsing the bloody crackdown on dissidents following the Tiananmen protests. He is generally unpopular in China, where he "has long been a figure of scorn and suspicion".
In 2010, Li's autobiographical book, The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries
The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries
The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries is a book issued in 2010 in the United States by West Point Publishing House, a small publisher established by Zheng Cunzhu, a former 1989 pro-democracy activist...
, was published by New Century Press. The Critical Moment covers Li's activities during the period of the Tiananmen Square protests, and was published on the protests' twenty-first anniversary. The Critical Moment had been available to publishers since 2004, when it was to be published on the protests' fifteenth anniversary, but was delayed due to legal reasons. New Century Press is run by Bao Pu, the son of Bao Tong
Bao Tong
Bao Tong was former Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses, known for its strong support for...
, who was an aide to Li's rival, Zhao Ziyang. Bao Pu was also an editor for Zhao's autobiography, Prisoner of the State
Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang
Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang is a 360-page book in English published in May 2009 containing the memoirs of People's Republic of China's former communist leader who was sacked after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. It is based on a series of about 30 audio...
. Bao stated that he initially had some doubts about the book's authenticity, but that these were mostly resolved by the time of the book's publication. The book was initially published only in Chinese.
Family
Li Peng is married to Zhu Lin (朱琳), a deputy manager in "a large firm in the south of China". Li and Zhu have 3 children: Li's elder son, Li XiaopengLi Xiaopeng (politician)
Li Xiaopeng is a Chinese businessman and politician. As the son of former Chinese Premier Li Peng, he is considered part of the Crown Prince Party. Formerly the President of China Huaneng Group and Huaneng Power International, Li currently serves as the Vice-governor of Shanxi. He is a graduate of...
; Li's daughter, Li Xiaolin
Li Xiaolin
Li Xiaolin is a Chinese businesswoman. She is currently the CEO of China Power International Development . She is the only daughter of former Chinese Premier Li Peng and his wife Zhu Lin. She was trained as a power generation engineer at Tsinghua University. She has also spent time as a visiting...
; and, Li's younger son, Li Xiaoyong. Li Xiaoyong is married to Ye Xiaoyan, the daughter of Communist veteran Ye Ting
Ye Ting
Ye Ting , born in Huiyang, Guangdong, was a Chinese military leader. He started out nationalist and went to the communists....
's second son, Ye Zhengming.
Li's family benefited from Li's high position during the 1980s and 1990s. Two of Li's children, Li Xiaopeng and Li Xiaolin, inherited and ran two of China's electrical monopolies. State-run Chinese media have publicly questioned whether it is in China's long-term interest to preserve the "new class of monopoly state capitalists" that Li's family represents. Li Xiaopeng became the Vice-Governor of Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
in 2008.
See also
- Politics of the People's Republic of ChinaPolitics of the People's Republic of ChinaThe politics of the People's Republic of China take place in a framework of a single-party socialist republic. The leadership of the Communist Party is stated in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China...
- History of the People's Republic of China (1989-2002)History of the People's Republic of China (1989-2002)In the People's Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping formally retired after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, to be succeeded by former Shanghai mayor Jiang Zemin. The crackdown in 1989 led to great woes in China's reputation globally, and sanctions resulted. The situation, however, would...
- Premier of the PRCPremier of the People's Republic of ChinaThe Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , sometimes also referred to as the "Prime Minister" informally, is the Leader of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , who is the head of government and holds the highest-ranking of the Civil service of the...
External links
- Li Peng human rights lawsuit
- Li Peng biography @ China Vitae, the web's largest online database of China VIPs