Li Ziliu (; 4 January 1932 – 25 December 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as Mayor of

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

from 1990 to 1996.

Biography

Li was born in

Shunde Shunde District, also known as Shuntak, is a district of the city of Foshan, Guangdong province, located in the Pearl River Delta. It had a population of 2,464,784 as of the 2010 census. Once a traditional agricultural county, it has become one ...

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) ...

, Republic of China on 4 January 1932, into a peasant family and he studied for only two years in a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

. He joined the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

in 1953. 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 goa ...

between 1966 and 1969, he was listed as "

rightist Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...

", tortured by the

Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...

and sent to prison for two years. In 1974, Li was appointed 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 ...

of Shunde County. In 1983, he was appointed to be the party secretary of

Jiangmen Jiangmen (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province in southern China. As of the 2020 census, its three urban districts, plus Heshan City being conurbated, with 2,657,662 inhabitants a ...

City. During his term of service, he drove the construction of the bridge linking Jiangmen and

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 ...

to improve the city's transportation network. In 1990, he was appointed Mayor of Guangzhou. He facilitated the construction of highways to Baiyun Airport and the

Guangzhou Metro The Guangzhou Metro () ( and ) is the rapid transit system of the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province of China. It is operated by the state-owned Guangzhou Metro Corporation and was the fourth metro system to be built in mainland China, af ...

during his term of service. After his retirement in 1996, Li established an agricultural company called Shunde New Century Farm in Shunde.

Henderson Land Henderson Land Development Co. Ltd. () is a listed property developer in Hong Kong and a constituent of the Hang Seng Index. The company's principal activities are property development and investment, project management, construction, hotel oper ...

New World Development New World Development Company Limited (NWD), is a Hong Kong-based company focused on property, hotels, infrastructure and services and department stores. It was established on 29 May 1970 by Cheng Yu-tung. The company is publicly listed on the ...

Sino Group Established in 1971, Sino Group () comprises three listed companies – Sino Land Company Limited (HKSE: 083), Tsim Sha Tsui Properties Limited (HKSE: 0247), Sino Hotels (Holdings) Limited (HKSE: 1221) – and private companies held by the Ng Fa ...

, and Ka Wah Group in Hong Kong invested in the company. Lai died of Cardiovascular disease on December 25, 2022, at the age of 90. Before his death, he was reported to have contracted COVID-19 on December 15.https://hk.finance.yahoo.com/news/%E5%BB%A3%E5%B7%9E%E5%B8%82%E5%89%8D%E5%B8%82%E9%95%B7%E9%BB%8E%E5%AD%90%E6%B5%81%E6%93%9A%E5%A0%B1%E5%9B%A0%E6%9F%93%E6%96%B0%E5%86%A0%E5%9C%A8%E5%AE%B6%E9%80%9D%E4%B8%96%E4%BA%AB%E5%B9%B491%E6%AD%B2-021254067.html

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Ziliu 1932 births 2022 deaths Businesspeople from Guangdong Mayors of Guangzhou Delegates to the 7th National People's Congress Delegates to the 8th National People's Congress People from Foshan People from Shunde District Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in China