Li Lanqing

Li Lanqing was born on 22 May 1932 in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. He graduated from the Business Management Department of Fudan University in 1952 and joined the Chinese Communist Party that September. Early in his career he worked at the First Automobile Works in Changchun; in 1956 he was sent to the Soviet Union, where he interned at the Likhachev and Gorky automobile plants in Moscow. From 1982 to 1983 he served as Director of the Foreign Investment Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade; from 1983 to 1986 he was Vice Mayor of Tianjin and Secretary of the municipal Foreign Economic and Trade Party Committee, working under Mayor Li Ruihuan to advance the city's opening to foreign investment. He served as Vice Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade from 1986 to 1990, then as Minister and Party Secretary of the ministry from 1990 to 1992, concurrently serving as Deputy Director of the State Council's Economic and Trade Office, overseeing the early reform-era restructuring of China's foreign investment and trade systems.

In 1992 Li was elected to the 14th CCP Politburo; in March 1993 he was appointed Vice Premier of the State Council at the First Session of the 8th National People's Congress, and in September 1997 he was elected to the Politburo Standing Committee of the 15th Central Committee, rising to first-ranked Vice Premier from 1998. Across his two terms as Vice Premier he oversaw education, science, culture, and foreign trade for roughly a decade, presiding over the expansion of higher education enrollment and the launch of the "985 Project" and "211 Project" programs to build up leading universities. He also represented the Chinese government abroad on two major bidding efforts: in 2001 he attended the IOC session in Moscow to support Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics, and in 2002 he travelled to Monte Carlo to support Shanghai's successful bid for the 2010 World Expo.

Following the banning of Falun Gong in 1999, Li Lanqing was appointed head of the "Leading Group for Handling the Falun Gong Issue," responsible for coordinating the suppression effort across government bodies. The Leading Group was the superior body overseeing the 610 Office, providing political direction and policy guidance to extend the campaign's reach across the full apparatus of the state. After retiring from the vice premiership in March 2003, he authored several memoirs, including Breaking Through: The Early Years of China's Opening, and has since been active in painting and seal-carving.