Li Xiannian (23 June 1909 – 21 June 1992) was President of the People's Republic of China from 18 June 1983 to 8 April 1988, succeeding Ye Jianying and preceding Yang Shangkun.
Biography[]
Li Xiannian was born in Hong'an, Hubei, Qing China in 1909, and he joined the Communist Party of China in 1927. He served as an army captain and political commissar for the Chinese Red Army during the Long March, during which he was wounded twice. After the communist victory during the Chinese Civil War, he rose in the ranks of the party, and he was a member of the National People's Congress from 1954 to 1988. From 1954 to 1980, he also served as Vice Chairman of the CPC, and he supported orthodox central planning and sociopolitical conformity while serving as Hua Guofeng's economic adviser. In 1983, he was appointed President of the People's Republic of China, and Deng Xiaoping convinced Li to resign in 1988 as a part of his encouragement of party elders to retire. He was a strong supporter of Jiang Zemin's rise to power, and he encouraged a strong response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Li died in 1992.