Li Shenzhi

Li Shenzhi

Li Shenzhi (August 15, 1923 - April 22, 2003), male, philosopher and sociologist. He was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. He once served as foreign secretary of Zhou Enlai, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Institute of American studies. He is a senior journalist, a famous expert on international issues, and a representative of Chinese liberalism in the second half of the 20th century.

Character experience

Li Shenzhi, a member of the Communist Party of China, was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province on August 15, 1923. From 1941 to 1945, he studied in the Economics Department of Beijing Yanjing University, St. John's University (merged into Shanghai University of Finance and economics in August 1950, which is now Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) and Chengdu Yanjing University. During the period, he participated in the peripheral organizations of the Communist Party of China and worked as a middle school teacher and magazine after graduation. From 1946 to 1949, he worked as an information clerk in the international edition of Chongqing Xinhua Daily, and later in Yan'an Xinhua news agency. He joined the Communist Party of China in November 1948. In 1949, he was deputy director of the International Department of Xinhua news agency. From 1954 to the first half of 1957, as the foreign secretary of Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the people's Republic of China, accompanied Premier Zhou Enlai to participate in many diplomatic activities, including the 1954 Geneva Conference and the 1955 Bandung Asian African Conference. During his stay in Xinhua news agency, he wrote a lot of international news comments and participated in the drafting of many diplomatic and political documents. In 1957, he was named by Mao Zedong as an extreme rightist and wrongly classified as a "rightist" for his remarks on "great democracy". He was expelled from the party and given unfair treatment such as devolution of labor. During the "Cultural Revolution", he was devolved to Beijing and returned to work as a translator and proofreader in the editorial department of Xinhua news agency in 1973. In 1979, the problem of "rightists" was corrected and the party membership was restored. From the end of 1978 to the beginning of 1980, he participated in the writing group on international issues established by the CPC Central Committee. During the visit, he accompanied Comrade Deng Xiaoping on a visit to the United States and served as an adviser to the delegation. He was transferred to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1980. After 1985, he served as vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and director of the American Institute. In 1988, he was a member of the Party group of the Chinese Academy of social sciences. In 1990, he was removed from the post of vice president and member of the leading Party group of the Academy of social sciences. In 1995, he left to recuperate. In his later years, he mainly studied liberalism and deeply reflected on the history and politics of modern China. He had a great influence at home and abroad and was praised by Chinese liberals as a leader in the ideological field at the turn of the century. He died of senile pneumonia in Peking Union Medical College Hospital on April 22, 2003.

Li Shenzhi is a deputy to the Seventh National People's Congress and a member of the Legal Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress.

"Shengong" is the common name of Mr. Li Shenzhi in Chinese intellectual and ideological circles. This erudite scholar was once the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, but no monograph was published, nor did he have the title of researcher or professor. Since 1990, he has been engaged in writing again. On average, he only writes three articles a year. The output is not high. However, almost every article that comes out can spread like wildfire. It has become a new topic in the ideological circle, causing controversy.

Li shenzhixian is a highly respected expert on international issues. He has served as the foreign secretary or assistant to many central leaders. In the words of an commentator, his life can be described as the ups and downs of Chinese political culture in the 20th century. At the same time, it makes forward-looking thinking on China under the tide of globalization.

join the revolutionary ranks

Li Shenzhi was born in 1923, the fourth year after the May 4th movement. His father participated in the revolution of 1911 and was a reporter of Shenbao and Xinwen Bao in Wuxi. Shen Zhi was born in a well-to-do family. He received a good education in traditional culture when he was a child. Thanks to the new culture movement, he was able to learn western culture. When I was in middle school, I came into contact with western constitutional democracy. Shen Zhi recalled that a middle school teacher, a senior revolutionary in Wuxi, gave them a "citizen class" to clarify the power and responsibility of the government and the rights and obligations of individuals, which had a great influence on him. By this time, he had finished reading historical records, Zizhitongjian and other Chinese history books, but after reading Ai Siqi's popular philosophy and other books promoting Marxism Leninism, he felt that there were no ancient Chinese books to divide history by five stages and distinguish people by two classes. The trend of the times made him gradually interested in Marxism Leninism and Western learning.

In 1941, at the age of 18, Li Shenzhi was admitted to Yanjing University to study economics. After only three months of study, he lost school because of the outbreak of the Pacific War and lung disease.

With the participation of the United States, the victory of the Anti Japanese war began to dawn; the second cooperation between the two parties began to crack. In order to win over the masses, the struggle between the two parties on the ideological and cultural front is very fierce. Democracy? Or dictatorship? This will directly determine the back of the heart. At that time, the party's news and propaganda organizations, such as liberation daily and Xinhua Daily, published a large number of articles, such as "all glory belongs to democracy" and "the ideals and democratic spirit of the American people", aiming at Chiang Kai Shek's one party dictatorship and news blockade, winning the hearts of the Chinese people, including many democratic parties and intellectuals.

The first thing to do is to go to Shuming middle school in Zigong to teach "citizen class". While teaching and promoting Marxism Leninism, six months later, they were chased by secret agents and ran to Chengdu. They found the Communist Party and transferred to the Xinhua Daily newspaper office in Chongqing. These articles have been studied word by word and publicized by shenzhidu. He recalled that when he was a student, he led the student movement. These articles were their slogans and programs.

The pursuit of democracy

In 1949, Li Shenzhi, who accompanied Soviet foreign guests to the ceremony of the founding of the Soviet Union in Tiananmen Square, was very excited.

At that time, he was already an "ideological expert" in the Communist Party of China. His talent made him the foreign secretary of Zhou Enlai. He accompanied Zhou Enlai to the Geneva Conference and the Asian African Conference, which also attracted Mao Zedong's attention.

After Khrushchev's secret report about Stalin came out, the "Poland Hungary incident" happened in October 1956, which shocked the whole socialist camp. Mao Zedong thought that all the relevant information he got came from the reference materials, so he sent his secretary, Lin Ke, to ask Wang Fei and Li Shenzhi, deputy directors of the International Department of Xinhua news agency, for their opinions. When the two people's congresses talked about the Soviet Union east issue, they advocated that "a little reformism should be carried out after the revolution", and Li Shenzhi even proposed that "a constitutional court should be set up", "citizenship courses or constitution courses should be set up in primary schools and middle schools, and every citizen in New China should be clear about his rights and obligations".

In 1957, Li Shenzhi was beaten to the right and expelled from the party.

Recalling this period of history, Li Shenzhi pointed out that the anti rightist movement was "a great reversal of China". He analyzed that the victory of the anti rightist struggle directly gave birth to the great leap forward. After that, agriculture expanded its satellites, industry refined steel, and people's communes became popular all over the country. The failure of the great leap forward led to the anti rightist struggle in early 1959 and the "Cultural Revolution" in 1966 By the end of the "Cultural Revolution", China's economy was on the verge of collapse, far behind Japan, which was defeated by China 30 years ago, and even behind the so-called "four little dragons" in Asia.

Diplomatic assistant

After the death of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, a pragmatic man, together with the whole party, set things right, completely denied the "Cultural Revolution", went deep into the anti left movement, gradually put economic construction in the first place and carried out the four modernizations. In view of the historical lessons, in August 1980, Deng Xiaoping made an important speech on the reform of the leadership system of the party and the state, which specifically put forward the major task of political system reform. Deng Xiaoping pointed out: Although all kinds of mistakes in the past are related to the mistakes in the party's Leadership Ideology and style, the more serious and fundamental reason lies in the serious defects in our leadership system and organizational system. In order to prevent the recurrence of the tragedy of the "Cultural Revolution" and realize the long-term stability of the country, we must start with the reform of the leadership system of the party and the state, and ensure the democratization of the political life, economic management and social life of the party and the state.

When Deng xiaoping visited the United States in 1979, he decided to use the entourage that Premier Zhou used. Li Shenzhi, who was still a "rightist", was found out and became Deng Xiaoping's diplomatic assistant. On the way, Shen Zhi asked Xiao Ping why he wanted to open up? Why is opening up mainly open to the United States and Europe? Xiao Ping replied that the countries following the United States have become rich and strong. (see Li Yu's recollection article)

After returning from the United States, the organization removed his "rightist" hat and restored his party membership.

As a pen pole, Li Shenzhi presided over the drafting of the international part of the report of the 12th CPC National Congress. Some commentators pointed out that this report clearly pointed out for the first time that the fundamental starting point of China's foreign policy is China's "national interests", and clearly stated that China will not ally with any big country and implement an independent foreign policy. At that time, the report was regarded overseas as a declaration of China's distancing from the United States, abandoning the establishment of a united front against the hegemonism of the "Soviet Union" and conducting equal distance and all-round diplomacy.

In May 1981, Li Shenzhi was appointed to establish the American Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and became the first director of the Institute. In 1990, he was removed from his post as vice president of the Chinese Academy of social sciences.

Philosophy of life

His familiarity with and insight into international affairs made Li Shenzhi one of the earliest people in China with a global vision. He wrote many articles criticizing Lee Kuan Yew's East Asian values, believing that the implementation of Lee's Confucian values in modern politics has a strong patriarchal system - patriarchal color of respecting relatives

Chinese PinYin : Li Shen Zhi