Li Rui (simplified Chinese: 李锐; traditional Chinese: 李銳; pinyin: Lǐ Ruì; April 13, 1917 – February 16, 2019) was a Chinese politician, historian and dissident Communist Party member. As a young student activist, he joined the communists in 1937. By 1958, he had become the vice-minister of the Ministry of Water Resources. His vocal opposition to the Three Gorges Dam brought him to the attention of paramount leader Mao Zedong. Mao, impressed by Li, made Li his personal secretary for industrial affairs. However, Li was known for his independence of thought, and after defying Mao at the 1959 Lushan Conference, he was stripped of his party membership 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, Li spent eight years in solitary confinement at the Qincheng Prison.
Born |
13 April 1917 China
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Died |
16 February 2019 (aged 101) Beijing, China
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Zodiac | Aries |
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