Li Tsung-jen
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Li_Zongren.jpg
Li Tsung-jen (李宗仁 Pinyin: Lǐ Zōngrén) (August 13, 1890 - January 13 1969), courtesy name Delin (德鄰), was vice-president and acting president of the Republic of China and adversary of Chiang Kai-shek.
Born in Xixiang Village (西鄉村), Guilin, Guangxi Province to a teacher father, Li Beiying (李培英) as the second eldest in a family of five boys and three girls. Li joined Tongmeng Hui in 1910. He was the general of the Seventh Army in the Northern Expedition. From 1925 to 1949, Guangxi remained under his influence.
Li participated in several set-piece battles in the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), including the Battle of Tai er zhuang.
In April 28 1948, Li was elected by the National Assembly as the vice-president, five days after his political opponent, Chiang Kai-shek became the president. The day after Chiang resigned on January 21, 1949 as a response to the Chinese Communist uprisings and several victories, Li became the nominal acting president. Li attempted to negotiate with the communists in Beijing. Such "pacifist attacks" increased the already-strained Li-Chiang tension. Li's intended and never implemented Seven Great Peace Policies were:
- "Bandit commands" (剿總) to be controlled by military officers
- Overly strict orders are to be more lenient
- Eliminate "chaotic expedition nation-establishing troops" (戡亂建國總隊)
- Release political prisoners
- Press freedom
- Eliminate unusual cruelty in punishment
- Eliminate arrest of civilians without proper reasons
For attempts on carrying his policies to any degree, Li faced with varying degrees of oppositions from Chiang supporters.
In November 1949, before the establishment of the Chiang government in Taiwan in the following month, Li flew to the New York for treating his chronic duodenum illness at the Hospital of Columbia University. At the same time, the acting Chinese President visited U.S. President Truman and denounced Chiang as a "dictator" and "usurper." Li doughtily vowed he would "return to crush" Chiang's movements once he went back to China.[1] (http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,812143,00.html)
In January 1952, Chiang commanded the Control Yuan now in Taiwan to impeach Li in the "Case of Li Tsung-jen's Failure to carry out Duties due to Illegal Conduct" (李宗仁違法失職案), and officially relinquished Li of the position as vice-president in the National Assembly March 1954. Li became a communist sympathizer and moved to Beijing with the support of Zhou Enlai on July 20, 1965. He died in Nanjing with a duodenum cancer at 78.
Li's residence in mainland China is viewed by some Chinese communists as a defect that caused Li to "patriotically return to the embrace of his Motherland with smiles" -- something similarly in perception to Aixinjuelo Puyi's reformation.
Li was arranged to married to Li Xiuwen (李秀文) at 20 and separated eventually. The Lis had a son, Li Youlin (李幼鄰). In 1924, Li married Guo Dejie (郭德潔), who died of breast cancer soon after returning with Li to Beijing. Li and Guo had one son: Li Zhisheng (李志聖). Li then remarried, to Hu Yousong (胡友松), who was 48 years younger than Li. Hu changed her name to Wang Xi (王曦) after Li died and remarried.
He co-wrote Memoirs of Li Tsung-jen with historian Te-Kong Tang (唐德剛), which vehemently criticizes Chiang Kai-shek and analyzed Japan's strategic failure to conquer China.
| Preceded by: Chiang Kai-shek | President of the Republic of China (acting) 1949–1950 | Succeeded by: Chiang Kai-shek |