Li Peng, << lee puhng >> (1928-2019), was one of China’s top leaders from the mid-1980’s to the early 2000’s. He headed government operations as premier of China from 1988 to 1998. He then served as chairman of the National People’s Congress, China’s national legislature, from 1998 to 2003. Li was a member of the Politburo, the chief policymaking body of China’s Communist Party, from 1985 to 2002. He devoted much of his career to developing China’s energy resources.
In 1989, the Chinese military killed many people demonstrating for democracy in China. Li was one of the leaders who called for the use of force in putting down the demonstration. As a result, his popularity among the people, which had never been high, declined.
Li was born in Chengdu on Oct. 28, 1928. His father was a revolutionary writer who was executed by China’s Nationalist government in 1931. In 1939, Communist leader Zhou Enlai and his wife, Deng Yingchao, took Li under their care. From 1949—when the Communists gained control of China—until his death in 1976, Zhou served as premier of China. Li Peng died on July 22, 2019, in Beijing.
