State of Play in China:Why the CCP Desperately Wants to Reclaim Li Rui's Diary Rights? (Part 2)

Li Rui, aged 102, was a key figure during the Mao era. His diaries have become a testament to China’s political history, involving legal battles over the ownership of these diaries and revealing the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party’s top echelons. His reflections uncover the complex struggles within the Party and pivotal moments in the nation’s development.

Disclaimer: For ease of reading, the editors of this site have made appropriate modifications to the content without altering the original meaning. This article solely represents the author’s personal views. This site serves only as an information display platform, aiming to help readers gain a more comprehensive understanding of historical truths.

Author | Wang Ju Paan

If you want to start reading from the previous part, please go to: State of Play in China:Why the CCP Desperately Wants to Reclaim Li Rui’s Diary Rights? (Part 1)

Today, we will continue to discuss the story behind Li Rui’s diary.

Li Rui not only wrote in his diary but later also gave an oral account to a person named Ding Dong from Yanhuang Chunqiu.

He talked about his past experiences.

He recounted all of his experiences, from growing up to joining the revolution.

In the last chapter of his book, due to his interactions with senior Communist Party officials,

he shared his observations about different senior officials, such as Mao Zedong, Gao Gang,

Kang Sheng, Bo Yibo, Lu Dingyi, Jiang Zemin, and even Xi Jinping.

For instance, he described in detail how Mao Zedong spoke very harshly.

He said that everyone knows that Mao Zedong’s first official wife was Yang Kaihui.

He mentioned that in the 1980s, during the renovation of Yang Kaihui’s former residence,

some early letters and manuscripts of Yang Kaihui were found hidden in the walls of the residence.

He said these letters and manuscripts were published by the local Hunan authorities in the 1980s,

but many contents were censored. So what was deleted?

Li Rui explained that Yang Kaihui described Mao Zedong as a political rogue and a lifestyle rogue.

Why did she say that? Because after marrying Yang Kaihui and having three children,

in 1928, Mao Zedong went to Jinggangshan. There, he met He Zizhen,

who was 17 years old at the time, and married her, completely abandoning Yang Kaihui.

So when Mao Zedong later led his troops to attack Changsha from Jinggangshan, he passed by Yang Kaihui’s home twice.

But he didn’t take Yang Kaihui away. Why not?

Because by then, he had already married the 17-year-old He Zizhen on Jinggangshan.

Yang Kaihui’s brother later went to Jinggangshan and brought this news back to the family.

Yang Kaihui was deeply devastated, which is why Mao Zedong was described as a political and lifestyle rogue.

Li Rui also mentioned many other disgraceful things about Mao Zedong, including that Mao was even involved in incest with his father.

His father was a rich farmer, and Mao often opposed him.

Once, his father tried to beat him, so Mao ran away.

His father originally wanted him to help out—his father was a wealthy farmer and businessman—wanted him to sell goods and get some education.

Mao had his own ideas. Over there, you see something he created himself (a calendar).

Xiao Yongyi, who was with me, is also a professor who likes to write poetry and is a relative of Yang Kaihui.

He once told me about Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui’s story, which I heard for the first time.

Mao Zedong had a first wife, right? They didn’t get married, and the first wife ended up becoming a concubine to Mao’s father.

So in his personal life, he was really a mess, inheriting a bit of his father’s ways. That’s the kind of person he was.

So, you can see that Li Rui’s revelations about Mao Zedong were extremely ruthless.

If this information were all disclosed, just think about it—the image of the great leader would be completely destroyed.

These are the stories he told about Mao Zedong. He also shared stories about other people.

For example, Jiang Zemin. We just talked about the story of Jiang Zemin and Chen Yun.

Later, when Jiang Zemin was in Shanghai in 1989, wasn’t Shanghai also experiencing student protests?

In Shanghai, Jiang Zemin dealt with Qin Benli of the World Economic Herald.

Later, Jiang Zemin didn’t know if his actions were correct, so he went to Beijing to meet Zhao Ziyang.

At that time, it was not easy to meet Zhao Ziyang. When he finally did, Zhao Ziyang severely criticized Jiang Zemin.

The criticism was harsh, and Jiang Zemin returned to Shanghai dejected.

Later, after Zhao Ziyang was ousted, Jiang Zemin unexpectedly won the lottery and became the General Secretary in Beijing.

After becoming General Secretary, Jiang Zemin held a deep grudge against Zhao Ziyang. Li Rui shared a detail about this.

He said that before Zhao Ziyang passed away, he went to Beijing Hospital to visit a man named Sun Daguang.

Zhao Ziyang was living next door. Four guards were stationed at Zhao’s door, and Li wanted to go in to see him.

But the guards wouldn’t let him in. Li then asked the guards to call their superior for permission.

He said, “Li Rui wants to see Zhao Ziyang.” The superior agreed, so he was allowed in.

When he went in, he saw Zhao Ziyang sitting alone on the bed, with a few security guards watching from behind a curtain.

At that time, Zhao Ziyang had only 20 days left to live.

Li Rui advised Zhao not to read newspapers or anything like that anymore.

After 1989, Li Rui visited Zhao Ziyang’s home several times.

He said Zhao Ziyang was very concerned about how his historical legacy would be judged.

Zhao even wrote articles to correct the record, urging future generations not to misunderstand him.

After visiting Zhao Ziyang, Li Rui wrote a letter to Jiang Zemin, saying that this situation couldn’t continue.

He said, “The man is about to die; you should lift the house arrest.” But Jiang Zemin ignored him.

So, he said, “See how petty Jiang Zemin is.”

He didn’t want Zhao Ziyang to peacefully live out his final days.

Li Rui also talked about Xi Jinping. Back when Xi Jinping was in Zhengding County, Hebei, he visited there.

When Xi Jinping was the county party secretary in Zhengding, Li Rui mentioned that Xi Zhongxun had specifically requested

the Hebei Provincial Party Committee to take care of his son, and this was discussed at the Hebei Provincial Standing Committee meeting.

You can imagine how this news spread in Hebei, making it difficult for Xi Jinping to stay there.

So, he was transferred to Fujian Province to serve as Deputy Mayor of Xiamen.

Later, when Xi Jinping became the Provincial Party Secretary of Fujian, Li Rui met him.

When he treated me to a meal, I said some of these things, which were later published in the book.

I told him, “Now that you are in a different position, you should say something meaningful.”

“You should express some opinions; now your status has changed.”

As we were leaving, he said, “You can push the envelope a bit.” I said, “How could I dare?”

Of course, at that time, I didn’t look down on him because he was Xi Zhongxun’s son.

You know Xi Zhongxun was an extraordinary man, and I was good friends with him.

But he mentioned that Xi Jinping lacked any real courage. However, years later, when Xi Jinping came to power,

he made some comments about Xi Jinping during an interview with Voice of America, saying that Xi Jinping’s educational level was really low.

He only graduated from elementary school; who would have thought his education was so lacking?

In the past, I didn’t know his education was so low.

When he was the Provincial Party Secretary of Zhejiang, he invited me for a meal. I went, and so did his daughter.

My wife went as well, so there were four of us, just four people at the table with a really great meal.

At that time, I didn’t realize his education level was so low. You know, he only has an elementary school education.

Since he was Xi Zhongxun’s son, I felt more at ease in my conversations.

That was Li Rui’s assessment of Xi Jinping. After this book was published in Hong Kong in 2013,

Li Rui’s daughter, Li Nanyang, who compiled the book, tried to bring hundreds of copies from Hong Kong to Mainland China.

But when she tried to cross the border, all the books were confiscated and couldn’t be brought back.

After they were confiscated, Li Nanyang felt indignant and told Li Rui about it.

She couldn’t understand why her father’s memoir couldn’t be brought into Mainland China.

So she asked customs, but they wouldn’t give her an explanation. In her anger, Li Nanyang decided to sue the customs authorities.

She filed an administrative lawsuit, asking which article of the Chinese Constitution or law prohibited her father’s memoir

from entering Mainland China. This became quite a peculiar case.

The Beijing court continuously delayed the trial over 20 times, just refusing to hold a hearing.

Who knows when it will be delayed until? In any case, the case never went to trial.

In the end, Li Nanyang had no choice but to appeal to the Beijing People’s Congress,

asking it to supervise and urge the Beijing court to hold a trial for the case.

But the People’s Congress wouldn’t accept her petition, so she approached National People’s Congress representatives,

hoping they would propose a motion to compel the Beijing court to try the case.

But no one dared to make such a proposal, and every possible avenue was blocked.

So her father’s book simply couldn’t enter Mainland China.

But thinking about what was written in Li Rui’s memoir,

it’s understandable why the Communist Party couldn’t allow it to enter. Just think about when Li Zhisui wrote his book,

“Mao Zedong’s Private Doctor’s Memoirs,” it was immediately banned in China, and anyone caught with it would be imprisoned.

Frankly, it’s only because she is Li Rui’s daughter. If it were anyone else

trying to circulate that book, they would have been arrested and sentenced a long time ago because it exposes the Communist Party’s dirtiest secrets.

It reveals the shady dealings among the Party’s senior leaders.

There’s no way it could circulate in Mainland China, absolutely impossible.

This is the book written by Li Rui, titled “Li Rui’s Oral History.”

In addition, Li Rui’s diary contains other content. Back in 1989,

he witnessed the Communist Party’s army directly massacring students. At that time, Li Rui was living in the Ministerial Building.

The Ministerial Building, as everyone knows, is in Muxidi, Beijing, and his home was right by the street.

So, on June 3, 1989, when the PLA military vehicles began entering Beijing,

heading from Xichang’an Street to Tiananmen Square, they witnessed the entire process.

In his diary, he wrote that around 11 p.m., gunfire became more frequent.

Many Beijing residents pushed barriers and buses into the middle of the street to try to block the advance. At that moment, machine guns started firing.

The crowd began to retreat, then surged forward again, only to retreat once more. By midnight,

he wrote that he saw the PLA military vehicles arriving. As the military vehicles arrived,

there was a formation of soldiers with shields standing on both sides, followed by another formation with shields.

These soldiers began throwing grenades into the crowds on either side of the road, and at that moment, the residents in the nearby buildings

witnessed the PLA opening fire on the crowd, shooting indiscriminately.

People started shouting “fascists, fascists,” and as soon as they shouted, bullets were fired at them.

At that time, Li Rui mentioned that his family lived on the sixth floor of the Ministerial Building.

Due to a row of garages by the roadside, when the PLA military vehicles drove by,

the bullets could only reach the seventh floor, not the sixth.

But he said that one of his neighbors living on the seventh floor had bullet holes shot directly into their balcony.

Li Rui’s family crouched on the balcony, watching the events below.

They saw tanks rolling in, directly firing at students and citizens, and they could see the bloodstains on the ground.

He wrote that the son-in-law of the Deputy Procurator-General Guan Fushan was sitting at home in their building and was shot to death.

The next morning, Li Rui went to Fuxing Hospital to check on the situation.

The night before, he had seen many injured people being sent to Fuxing Hospital.

At the hospital, the doctors were crying, saying that 50 of the injured had already died.

Li Rui recorded all these details in his diary. At that time, he remarked, “This is taking things to the extreme. How will they ever explain this to the world?”

What he meant was that the Communist Party was doomed by such actions.

In 1989, Li Rui, along with Yu Guangyuan and others who were members of the Central Advisory Commission,

wrote a letter to the central government firmly opposing the crackdown on students. After June 4th, they were singled out.

The Party then decided not to register them, which was essentially a way of expelling them from the Party.

Not registering meant they were no longer Party members. However, Chen Yun later spoke up for them,

saying this couldn’t continue and that the matter would have to be rectified someday.

He argued that since the suggestion was made in an organizational meeting, it was in line with organizational principles.

So later, Bo Yibo, during a general assembly, said that the matter had passed, meaning

the four of them wrote a letter to the central government, opposing martial law and action against the students.

When there is a conflict between humanity and Party loyalty, I choose humanity.

Li Rui recorded all these events in his diary.

You can imagine how deadly Li Rui’s diaries are to the CCP.

Because the Communist Party never wants to bring up what happened in 1989,

nor does it want to recall the events of the Cultural Revolution or the Great Leap Forward.

And it certainly doesn’t want to discuss the power struggles among senior Communist Party officials. Li Rui’s diaries have become extremely valuable first-hand documents.

Unlike in Western countries, where senior political figures often write memoirs after retirement,

it’s rare for senior Communist Party officials to write memoirs. There are several reasons for this, one being that many lack education.

To write memoirs, you need some level of education. Without it, how can you write memoirs?

In fact, I’ve read very few memoirs. For example, Yan Mingfu wrote memoirs.

Yan Mingfu himself is quite talented, but we’ve mentioned in previous programs that his memoirs end with the beginning of the reform era.

I suspect Yan Mingfu wrote a third volume, but it wasn’t allowed to be published.

Why? Because the third volume would have to cover the 1989 events,

and Yan Mingfu was a key figure in those events, but he wasn’t allowed to publish it.

So, among senior Communist Party officials, very few have written memoirs, and even fewer have kept diaries.

To consistently write diaries over decades is almost unheard of, extremely rare.

So, Li Rui’s diaries are of enormous historical value.

In the last century, as we mentioned, he was once a visiting scholar in the United States,

where he went to Harvard University’s East Asia Research Center.

The director there was named MacFarquhar, who specialized in studying the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Li Rui interacted with Western academia and visited six universities in the United States.

He also went to the Hoover Institution, gaining a basic understanding of Western academic circles.

By 2013, due to the publication of his book, Li Rui’s Oral History, which was banned in China, Li Rui became quite anxious. Why?

He was worried that after his death, these diaries would also be confiscated by the Communist Party.

Later in his life, Li Nanyang digitized the diaries.

In 2013, when the deputy director of the Hoover Institution visited his home and saw these diaries, he immediately expressed a desire to collect them.

So in 2013, when Li Nanyang published Li Rui’s Oral History, she discussed with her father,

saying that these diaries wouldn’t be safe in China. What if the Communist Party burned them?

Li Rui thought she was right. After all, he had personally experienced how Zhou Enlai’s historical materials and archives were destroyed

under Deng Yingchao’s orders because they couldn’t be shown to the public.

So, in 2013, Li Rui asked Li Nanyang to gradually take all the diaries to the United States.

In 2017, under Li Rui’s instructions, Li Nanyang donated all the diaries to the Hoover Institution.

This is the entire backstory. But unexpectedly, in February 2019, after Li Rui passed away,

his successor wife, Zhang Yuzhen, suddenly initiated a lawsuit against Li Nanyang.

According to Li Nanyang, in April 2019, she received a summons,

stating that Zhang Yuzhen had sued her regarding inheritance issues. Li Nanyang was quite puzzled,

as Li Rui had already donated the diaries to the Hoover Institution while he was alive.

So why was she being sued? Logically, the lawsuit should have been against Li Rui, as he was the one who donated them.

Li Nanyang then filed a jurisdictional challenge with the Chinese court,

arguing that this wasn’t an inheritance issue at all.

Li Rui had already donated the items to the Hoover Institution during his lifetime.

So what does this have to do with inheritance? It’s simply a matter of ownership rights.

But the Chinese court didn’t listen, saying that the case should be argued in court.

So, the trial was held on June 25, 2019, but it was not open to the public.

No one was allowed in to watch. In December 2019, the Xicheng District Court in Beijing issued a ruling,

ordering Li Nanyang and the Hoover Institution to return the original diaries, including the digital copies, to Zhang Yuzhen within a month.

There’s an interesting piece of information here.

On June 25, the day of the trial, a statement circulated online.

The statement, supposedly written by Zhang Yuzhen, Li Rui’s wife, had three main points:

First, that the lawsuit wasn’t her original intention.

Second, that she had no objections to how Li Rui handled his estate and diaries.

Third, that the lawsuit had nothing to do with her, and that since she was already 90 years old,

she hoped to live out her remaining years in peace. We don’t know if this statement is genuine or not.

Reportedly, Li Nanyang’s lawyer tried to contact Zhang Yuzhen but received no response.

In any case, in December 2019, the Xicheng District Court ruled against Stanford,

ordering them to return the diaries to Zhang Yuzhen. But Stanford refused, arguing that the diaries were of great historical value.

So, in June 2019, Stanford University filed a counter-suit against Zhang Yuzhen in the United States,

asking the U.S. court to confirm that the diaries belonged to the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

But Zhang Yuzhen wasn’t simple either. In 2020, she hired a lawyer in the U.S.

and sued both Stanford and Li Nanyang in court.

Lawsuits in the U.S. are long and expensive.

It’s said that this lawsuit cost several million.

Some say that Li Nanyang was fortunate to have the Hoover Institution as a co-plaintiff.

Otherwise, Li Nanyang wouldn’t have been able to afford a lawyer on her own. Just think, Zhang Yuzhen had someone funding her legal expenses,

while Li Nanyang, an ordinary immigrant in the U.S., couldn’t possibly afford millions to fight this lawsuit.

But since Stanford was also involved,

Stanford spent a large sum to defend its ownership of these diaries.

The counter-lawsuit filed by Stanford officially went to trial last week.

Today, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time, on August 29th, the famous Li Rui diary dispute will be heard in federal court.

This is the federal courthouse. We’ll go inside to observe the trial, which is being held on the second floor.

Last Monday, on August 19th, the trial began and continued for two weeks until today, August 29th.

It’s likely that the trial will conclude today.

This is the courtroom where the Li Rui diary dispute is being heard—Courtroom Six.

The trial is ongoing, and filming is not allowed inside.

As everyone knows, there is a well-known China scholar in the U.S. named Perry Link.

It’s reported that he was called to testify in court a few days ago. What did he testify about?

He testified that Zhang Yuzhen did not have the financial resources to pay for this lawsuit.

All these legal expenses were backed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Li Rui’s wish was for these materials, including the original diaries, to remain at the Hoover Institution, and that is the focus of this case.

We do not believe Zhang Yuzhen is acting alone in this lawsuit. The evidence will show who else is involved.

I have believed this from the beginning and intend to make this point in my testimony.

The Chinese Communist Party is indeed behind this, and it’s now very clear. I don’t think I need to emphasize this point any further.

Yes, Zhang Yuzhen herself said she wouldn’t spend money or bother with this.

The CCP’s goal in reclaiming Li Rui’s diaries is to control history, to cover up the truth,

and to prevent people from knowing about these dark chapters in the Party’s history.

Therefore, defending the ownership of Li Rui’s diaries at the Hoover Institution is not only about honoring his final wishes

but also about resisting the CCP’s efforts to control the narrative. This is the essence of the entire Li Rui incident.

I’ve always thought of Li Rui as a rather peculiar person. He was a senior Communist Party official,

even serving as Mao Zedong’s secretary in his early years. However, as he came to understand more about the Party’s history,

he gradually turned against the Party’s stance, becoming a symbol of liberal thought within the Party.

In his later years, he once said that the Communist Party was nothing more than a mafia that nurtured lackeys. It’s said that on his deathbed,

he told his daughter that he didn’t want to be buried in Babaoshan, nor did he want his body covered with the Party flag. Why?

He said that the reason he remained in the Party was not because he was attached to the privileges it granted him,

but because he believed that staying within the Party gave him greater influence.

He felt that his unique position allowed his voice to have a greater impact.

He hoped to use his influence to help more people understand the Party’s history and the truth about it.

Unfortunately, after Li Rui passed away, he was still buried in Babaoshan, and his body was still covered with the Party flag.

Even Xi Jinping, whom he despised, personally sent a wreath to his funeral.

But after his funeral, the authorities immediately began confiscating all the books in his home office.

Then, in the U.S., a lawsuit was launched to reclaim his diaries.

I think the Communist Party’s attempt to control history is ultimately meaningless.

After all, Li Rui’s diaries have been in the U.S. for years, and most of the content from before 1979 has already been published.

And after 2019, the Hoover Institution gradually made them available.

Anyone can go to the Hoover Institution and read the contents of Li Rui’s diaries.

There are also various summaries of Li Rui’s diaries available online.

The truth cannot be sealed away. History is what it is.

The Communist Party’s attempts to cover up history through deception and suppression are doomed to fail.

I believe these efforts are futile because, although the Communist Party is a massive organization,

there are still some people within it who haven’t lost their conscience. When these people eventually reveal the history they have recorded,

won’t the truth about history be brought to light?

That’s all for today. We also hope that Li Rui’s diaries will be published as soon as possible.

If I ever get the chance to visit the U.S., I’d be very interested in going to the Hoover Institution to see Li Rui’s diaries firsthand.

Then I’ll have the opportunity to share with everyone some of the lesser-known stories behind Li Rui’s diaries.

That’s all for today. Thank you, everyone.