Li Changchun | |
|---|---|
| 李长春 | |
 Li in 2009 | |
| Chairman of theCentral Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilization | |
| In office 15 November 2002 – 18 January 2013 | |
| Deputy | Liu Yunshan Chen Zhili Liu Yandong Liu Qi |
| General Secretary | Hu Jintao |
| Preceded by | Ding Guangen |
| Succeeded by | Liu Yunshan |
| Party Secretary of Guangdong | |
| In office March 1998 – November 2002 | |
| Deputy | Lu Ruihua (governor) |
| Preceded by | Xie Fei |
| Succeeded by | Zhang Dejiang |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1944-02-01)February 1, 1944 (age 81) Kwantung Leased Territory,Japanese Empire (NowDalian, China) |
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party (1965–present) |
| Alma mater | Harbin Institute of Technology |
| Li Changchun | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 李长春 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 李長春 | ||||||
| |||||||
Li Changchun (born February 1, 1944) is a retired Chinese politician and a former senior leader of theChinese Communist Party. He served on thePolitburo Standing Committee, the party's top leadership council, and as the top official in charge ofpropaganda, between 2002 and 2012.[1] He also served as Chairman of theCCP Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilization,de facto head of propaganda and media relations. Li had a widely varying political career spanning three provinces, first as Governor of Liaoning, thenParty Secretary ofHenan, and thenCCP Committee Secretary ofGuangdong, before being promoted to the national leadership in 2002. He retired in 2012.
Li Changchun was born in February 1944 in modern-dayDalian,Liaoning, then administered by theEmpire of Japan as "Dairen",Kwantung Leased Territory. He joined theChinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1965 and graduated with a degree inelectrical engineering from theHarbin Institute of Technology in 1966.[2] In 1983, at age 39, he became the youngest mayor and Party secretary of a major city, ofShenyang, the capital of Liaoning. In 1982, he was also made an alternate member of theCentral Committee of the Chinese Communist Party at the age of 38, the youngest member of the body at the time. In 1987, he became governor of Liaoning province, a post he kept until 1990. As governor,mainland China's firstexpressway was built in the province, linking the cities of Shenyang and Dalian.[3] In addition, Li pushed for the reform of state-owned enterprises, aiming to decrease state involvement in their operations.[4]
After General SecretaryZhao Ziyang was purged from the party leadership in 1989 during the fallout from theTiananmen Square protests that same year, Li was initially also thought to have been removed from the leadership because he was a supporter of Zhao. Li's appearance on state television weeks later showed that this was not the case.[5]
In 1990, Li was transferred from his job in Liaoning province to central Henan province. In his memoirs, Li recounted that he was ill-prepared for his new assignment and felt homesick. The central authorities had not given him much prior notice about his transfer, and did not inform him why he was being moved or facilitate an orderly transition process. Li, as a result, was somewhat critical of the party's transfer process but nonetheless duly accepted his new assignment. He had succeeded then-Henan governorCheng Weigao, who had been transferred to Hebei province as part of a three-province 'leader swap' orchestrated by the party's leaders.[6] Henan, a populous agricultural province without a strong industrial base, presented Li with significant challenges, and Li had experienced unease settling into his new home.[3]
Two years later, in 1992, Li was promoted to party chief of Henan. It would be Li's first job as "first-in-charge" of a province. Being accustomed to serving in government administration, Li's tenure in Henan was his first taste of being in charge of party affairs. Li said that initially being the top leader in the province made him uncomfortable as he had to shoulder all responsibility, especially at a time when other regions were developing economically at a pace much faster than that of Henan.[6] Overall, his tenure in Henan was seen as mediocre. Rural incomes remained stagnant during his term, and his government was also criticized for its role in thePlasma Economy, where farmers were encouraged to donate blood through unsafe practices, triggering China's largest outbreak of HIV/AIDS.[7]
Li was promoted to thePolitburo of the Chinese Communist Party in 1997, largely due to having secured the patronage of theparamount leader andParty General SecretaryJiang Zemin.[8] In his memoirs, Li said that he was surprised at having been appointed to the Politburo.[6] In 1998, Jiang dispatched Li to serve asGuangdong Party Secretary. It was said that Jiang wanted to use Li as a counterbalance to the entrenched local political establishment composed mostly of people native to the province. In Guangdong, Li cracked down on corruption to "put the house in order."[9] In the wake of theAsian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, Li set up a special task force to evaluate what to do with non-performing loans owed by two of the province's largest financial companies. He appointed former central bank deputy governorWang Qishan to oversee the task force. Li shook up the local banking sector and closed a plethora of local credit unions and agencies.[8] He also increased access to the legal aid system for the poor in the province.[8] His tenure in Guangdong was seen as largely successful, having averted the brunt of the Asian Financial Crisis and also bringing Guangdong back to the political control of the central leadership under Jiang Zemin after sidelined many local officials promoted byYe Xuanping, former Governor of Guangdong and the elder son of MarshalYe Jianying.[8]
Li's tenure in Guangdong made him one of Jiang's favourites and as such Jiang was preparing to groom him for succession for the premiership upon incumbent PremierZhu Rongji's scheduled retirement in 2003.[8] However, Zhu had been favouringWen Jiabao for thePremier office, and criticized Li over his handling of an "export rebate fraud" scandal in the coastal city ofShantou in 2000, which took place during Li's term as Guangdong party chief. By the end, Wen Jiabon won this competition and became Premier of China in March 2003.[10] Li's intention to promoteHuang Liman, a female friend of Jiang's who was considered incompetent, to the party chief position in the coastal city ofShenzhen became a sticking point for Jiang's political opponents.[10]
As expected, Li was named a member of thePolitburo Standing Committee after Jiang's departure as General Secretary of the CCP in 2002.[11] By then, Li was seen by political observers as firmly belonging to Jiang's camp. He was considered one of Jiang's major 'patronage appointments' to the top ruling council along with other staunch Jiang loyalists such asJia Qinglin andHuang Ju. Li was ranked eighth in the party hierarchy out of the nine members of the new PSC, given the portfolio of supervising the Party organs that dealt with propaganda and ideology while taking on no other official party or state titles.[10]
Li was the first propaganda chief to preside over the growth of the internet in China, and as a result was largely seen as having been the forerunner in developing the internet censorship regime that became increasingly extensive over the course of his tenure. In October 2007, at the 17th Party Congress, it was announced that Li, then aged 63 (below the unofficial age of retirement for PSC members, 67), would serve another term as propaganda chief.[12] In addition, Li was elevated from eight position in the protocol sequence to fifth, in front of Hu Jintao's putative successorXi Jinping.
There were high hopes among some in media circles that Li would signal a more liberal change from the strictures of former propaganda chiefDing Guangen. Li had made a major speech advocating that media stay "close to the public" and to real events, "instead of mechanically following Party directives."[13] In addition, Li was also seen as a leading reformer due to his legacy in Guangdong, where he was not afraid to take on entrenched interests and introduce further market economic reforms. The hopes were short-lived however, though, after theCentral Propaganda Department began closing newspapers, firing journalists, and would not allow foreign companies to produce content for TV stations in China. Many editors were punished and Li Changchun "started sounding and acting like another Ding Guangen."[13]
Li retired from PSC in 2012, whenLiu Yunshan succeeded his position as the propaganda chief.
In his position as China's propaganda chief from 2002 to 2012, Li was said to have contributed heavily to China's censorship campaign and frequently ordered media to downplay or not report on certain events. In 2006, he told the members of theAll-China Journalists Association to "closely encircle the overall work of the party and state".[14] Li approved the construction of theNational Museum in 2006 after a series of disputes and delays about the building of the museum.[15] He was the guest of honor at the opening of theNational Center for the Performing Arts.[16]
Li has put his support behind a number of creative projects that might otherwise have been censored by the government. He supportedZen Shaolin, a music, dance and martial arts show intended to increase tourism that opened in 2007 inHenan, despite the producers' concerns that a celebration of religion and sacred music would be opposed by the government.[17] Li allowed a 2009 movieNanking! Nanking! byLu Chuan to continue running in theaters in the face of strong pressure from nationalists who objected to the sympathetic characterization in the film of a Japanese soldier. The film was one of ten chosen to help commemorate60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.[18]
In May 2009, American diplomats reported in acable that was later leaked that Li was a driving force behind China's renewed pressure against Google to comply with Chinese censorship laws. Li was reportedly unhappy that Chinese Google search results for his and his children's names contained results critical of them. He subsequently ordered major Chinese firms to cease doing business with Google, and one source with connections to political elite claimed Li had directed a subsequent cyberattack against Google in retaliation.[19][20]
Li is married to Zhang Shurong (张淑荣), his college sweetheart. Zhang was an engineer.[6]
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Party Secretary of Henan 1992–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Party Secretary of Guangdong 1998–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of theCCP Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilization 2002–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Leader of theLeading Group for Propaganda and Ideological Work 2002–2013 | ||
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Liaoning 1987–1990 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Henan 1990–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Henan People's Standing Congress 1993–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Jia Qinglin Conference Chairman | 5thRank of the Chinese Communist Party 17thPolitburo Standing Committee | Succeeded by Xi Jinping Vice President |
| Preceded by Wu Guanzheng Discipline Secretary | 8thRank of the Chinese Communist Party 16thPolitburo Standing Committee | Succeeded by Luo Gan Political and Legislative |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
