Li Hongzhong (; born 13 August 1956) is a Chinese politician, who is a member of the

Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, formally known as the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and known as the Central Bureau before 1927, is the decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ...

. Born in

Shenyang Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a major China, Chinese sub-provincial city and the List of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Lia ...

, Li spent much of his early career in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

province, including as mayor, then party secretary of

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

. He was transferred to

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

province in 2007 and would go on to serve as Governor and party secretary there. He served as the

Communist Party Secretary A Party Committee Secretary () is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization in a province, city, village, or other administrative unit. In most cases, it is the ''de facto'' highest political office of its area of jurisdictio ...

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

between 2016 and 2022. During his term in Hubei, Li generated controversy after grabbing a recording pen from the hand of the female journalist Liu Jie and refusing to answer her question. Li later refused to apologize, despite an open letter signed by over 200 intellectuals including ''

People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...

'' editor

Zhou Ruijin Zhou may refer to: Chinese history * King Zhou of Shang () (1105 BC–1046 BC), the last king of the Shang dynasty * Predynastic Zhou (), 11th-century BC precursor to the Zhou dynasty * Zhou dynasty () (1046 BC–256 BC), a dynasty of China ** West ...

demanding Li to resign.

Biography

Li was born in

, but traces his ancestry to

Changle County Changle County () is under the administration of Weifang Weifang () is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, People's Republic of China. The city borders Dongying to the northwest, Zibo to the west, Linyi to the southwest, Riz ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

province. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

, he performed manual labour as a

sent-down youth The sent-down, rusticated, or "educated" youth (), also known as the ''zhiqing'', were the young people who—beginning in the 1950s until the end of the Cultural Revolution, willingly or under coercion—left the urban districts of the ...

Sujiatun District Sujiatun District () is one of ten districts of the prefecture-level city of Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province, Northeast China, and forms part of the southern suburbs. The current population of Sujiatun is 430,000 and is located 15 ...

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

Province. In 1978, he earned admission to the history department at

Jilin University Jilin University (JLU; ; often abbreviated JLU or ) is a leading national research university located in Changchun, China. It is under the direct jurisdiction of China's Ministry of Education. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Class A Doub ...

. After he graduated, Li was sent to work at the government. He worked for the General Office of the Shenyang municipal government, then a secretary at the ministry of electronics industry. In 1988 he was sent to Guangdong province, where he would go on to spend two decades of his political career. He successively served as the mayor and party chief of

Huizhou Huizhou ( zh, c= ) is a city in central-east Guangdong Province, China, forty-three miles north of Hong Kong. Huizhou borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the west, Shenzhen and Dongguan to the southwest, Shaoguan to the north, Heyua ...

City, then the vice governor of Guangdong, then in 2003, the acting mayor and mayor of

, China's most prominent

Special Economic Zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

. In March 2005, he was named Communist Party chief of Shenzhen. In November 2007, he was transferred to Hubei province, where he took on the office of

deputy party chief In modern politics of China, Chinese politics, a Deputy Party Committee Secretary (; also translated as Deputy Party Secretary, deputy party chief, vice party chief) serves as the lieutenant to the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary, ...

, governor, and then finally in December 2010, provincial party chief. During his Hubei governorship, the

Shishou incident The Shishou Incident () was a popular protest and riot in the city of Shishou, Hubei Province, in central China between June 19–21, 2009. The protests were the result of dubious circumstances surrounding the death of 24-year-old chef Tu Yuangao ...

and

Deng Yujiao incident The Deng Yujiao incident () occurred on 10 May 2009 at a hotel in Badong County, Hubei. Deng Yujiao, a 21-year-old pedicure worker, tried to rebuff the advances of Deng Guida (; no relation), director of the local township business promotions off ...

occurred in the province. For some reason, during the elections for Vice-President at the

2013 National People's Congress The 2013 National People's Congress (formally, the 1st Session of the 12th National People's Congress) held its annual meeting in March 2013 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. The session opened 5 March and concluded on 16 March, 2 ...

, Li Hongzhong received one

write-in vote A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...

. In preparation for the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee, Li Hongzhong was only one of two regional officials (the other was

Huang Qifan Huang Qifan (, born May 1952) is a Chinese politician, best known for his term as the Mayor of Chongqing, one of China's four directly-controlled municipalities, between 2010 and 2016. Huang began his political career in Shanghai and was transf ...

) selected to be part of the drafting committee on the "resolution for deepening reform." On June 1, 2015, the ''Dongfang Zhixing'' ferry sank, causing the deaths of some 442 people. Only 12 people were rescued, but the Hubei government granted accolades to some 99 organizations and 253 individuals. On January 15, 2016, at a meeting of the

provincial party standing committee Members of the standing committees of the Chinese Communist Party provincial-level committees, commonly referred to as ''Shengwei Changwei'' (), make up the top ranks of the provincial-level organizations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I ...

, Li endorsed the "Xi Jinping

leadership core In modern Chinese politics, a leadership core or core leader () refers to a person who is recognized as central to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Four individuals so far have been given this designation: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, ...

" principle, stating, "the Politburo and its Standing Committee are the core leaders 'hexin''of the party, General Secretary Xi Jinping is the core leader of the party center. To proactively maintain the authority of the party center means maintaining the leading core of General Secretary Xi Jinping." In September 2016, Li was appointed the Communist Party Secretary of

, replacing

Huang Xingguo Huang Xingguo (; born October 1954) was the Mayor of Tianjin, and, between 2015 and 2016, the acting Communist Party Secretary of Tianjin.

, who was dismissed for corruption. The appointment meant that Li would likely advance one step further to the Politburo at the

19th Party Congress The 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (commonly referred to as ''Shíjiǔ Dà''; ) was held at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, between 18 and 24 October 2017. 2,280 delegates represented the party's estimated 89 mill ...

in 2017.

Deng Yujiao incident

In March 2010, when Li Hongzhong, then Governor of Hubei, was attending the

11th National People's Congress The 11th National People's Congress () met for a 5-year term, from 2008 to 2013. It held five annual two week plenary sessions during this period. It succeeded the 10th National People's Congress. There were 2,987 deputies elected to the 11t ...

in Beijing, ''

Beijing Times The ''Beijing Times'' () was a Chinese newspaper published in Beijing that is a part of the People's Daily Group. When it started in 2001 it had 12% of the Beijing newspaper market and its percentage increased afterwards. Tang Wenfang and Shanto Iy ...

'' journalist Liu Jie asked him to comment on the case of Deng Yujiao, a Hubei pedicurist who killed a government official who tried to rape her. Li refused to comment on the case, which was considered an embarrassment to the government of Hubei, and instead grabbed the recorder from her. The incident was widely reported in Chinese media, but Li refused to apologize to Liu Jie, stating that she stuttered when he asked her which newspaper she represented, and that he was unsure about her identity. A week later, at least 210 intellectuals and journalists, including dramatist

Sha Yexin Sha Yexin (; 13 July 1939 in Nanjing – 26 July 2018) was a Chinese playwright and short story writer. Sha finished his first one-act play, ''Yi fen qian'' 《一分钱》 (''One Cent''), in 1965. Later works include his plays ''Haohao xuexi'' ...

, scholars Cui Weiping and Hu Yong, and the prominent former ''

'' editor

, signed an open letter demanding Li to resign. The petition was ultimately unsuccessful, as Li Hongzhong was promoted to party chief (i.e. top office) of Hubei in December. However, in the face of media scrutiny, Li made a statement suggesting that he was in favour of the media reporting the

and the Deng Yujiao incident, as long as the news media conducted itself in a "fair and objective" manner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Hongzhong Living people 1956 births Governors of Hubei Chinese Communist Party politicians from Shandong People's Republic of China politicians from Shandong Political office-holders in Guangdong Members of the 20th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 19th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Alternate members of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Alternate members of the 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Delegates to the 10th National People's Congress Jilin University alumni Politicians from Weifang Mayors of Shenzhen