Li Xiannian

Li Xiannian was a Chinese communist leader who served as the president of the People's Republic of China from 1983 to 1988 and the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1988 to 1992. He was one of the Eight Elders of the Communist Party and a close ally of Deng Xiaoping. He was born to a middle-class family in Hong'an, Hubei, and joined the Communist Party in 1927. He became a soldier in the Chinese Red Army and participated in the Long March, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War. He was a successful military commander and a political commissar. After the founding of the PRC, he served as the governor and party secretary of Hubei Province, the minister of finance, and the vice premier. He supported Mao Zedong's designated successor, Hua Guofeng, and was named vice chairman of the party in 1977. He became the head of state in 1983, after Deng Xiaoping resigned from the post. He was a nominal leader who had little power and influence, and was overshadowed by Deng, who remained as the paramount leader and the chairman of the Central Military Commission. Li was considered the most leftist among the Eight Elders, and opposed economic reforms and privatizations. He promoted classical communist political and cultural values, and was instrumental in purging liberals Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang. He also supported the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. He retired from his official positions in 1989, but remained the core of the second generation of Chinese leadership until his death in 1992. He was succeeded by Yang Shangkun as the president and by Li Ruihuan as the chairman of the CPPCC.