Background
He is often known in Western circles as J. S. Lee or Jonguei Su-kuang Lee (the “Jonguei” deriving from his courtesy name, Chung-k’uei).
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Li Szu-kuang
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In his youth Li received a classical education and then studied at a cadets’ school in Hupeh founded by Chang Chih-tung, the famed Ch’ing reformer. Because of his good record, Li was sent to Japan to study shipbuilding and engineering. As in the case of so many young Chinese students in Japan in the eariy 1900’s, Li joined Sun Yat- sen’s T’ung-meng hui (c.1908). After his return to China he taught at a technical school in Wuchang and took part in the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew the Ch’ing Dynasty.
Following the establishment of the Chinese Republic, Li went to England where he studied geology. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Birmingham (1917 and 1918), and after his return to China was awarded his doctorate (1926) from that university. As a result of his education, Li is known to be proficient in English, German, and French, and presumably has some command of Japanese.
Career
Returning to China in 1920, Li took up a professorship of geology at Peking University (Peita) and for the next two decades was among the most active Chinese scientists in the promotion of science in China. He was, for example, a charter member of the Geological Society of China in 1922 and later the president of the organization, from 1930 to 1933 and again from 1943 to 1949 he headed the Geology Research Institute under the Academia Sinica; and from 1933 to 1943 he chaired the Geology Department at Pcita. During these same years Li maintained his contacts with the international scientific community through his writings and other activities. Tn this connection, he spent part of 1935 in England lecturing on geology and he also served as a member of the Sino-British Cultural Association, which had been formed in Nanking in 1933.
In 1948 Li was in England again to attend the 18th session of the International Geological Congress. Probably because of the unsettled political situation in China, he did not return home when the congress adjourned. But when the PRC was inaugurated in 1949, Li was given a number of appointments, and the implication is that the Communist authorities were confident of his return to the mainland. When he did return to Peking (May 1950), he had already been named (October 1949) a vice-president of the Academy of Sciences and a member of the Culture and Education Committee of the PRC’s Government Administration Council (the cabinet). Then in August 1950 he was given two positions more specifically related to his profession. the directorship of the Palaeontology Institute under the Academy (a post he held until 1954) and the chairmanship of the Geological Work Planning and Guidance Committee. The latter was the precursor of the Ministry of Geology thus, just a few days before the Committee was abolished (September 1952), the ministry was established with Li as the’ first minister, a post he continues to hold. As of January 1965, when all cabinet ministers were appointed or reappointed, Li was one of the very few who had held a ministerial-level post for so many continuous years.
In the same month that Li received the two above-described positions (August 1950), the PRC held a large conference of scientific’ personnel. Out of this conference came two permanent nationwide scientific organizations, the All-China Federation of Scientific Societies (AC- FSS) and the All-China Association for the Dissemination of Scientific and Technical Knowl-edge. Attesting to Li’s stature as a man of science, he was named to head the former (and more important) organization. Furthermore, when the two bodies were merged in September 1958 to form the China Scientific and Technical Association (CSTA), Li was named to head the combined organization another position that he retains. One of the scientific organizations under the jurisdiction of the ACFSS (and later the CSTA) is the Geological Society of China, the organization that Li had helped to found in 1922, Like all such societies, it was reorganized in the early 1950’s after the Communists had come to power.
Li was a member of the First National Committee (1949-1954) of the CPPCC and was then elevated in 1954 to a vice-chairmanship, holding this post on the Second, Third, and Fourth National Committees, the first sessions of which were held, respectively, in December 1954, April 1959, and December 1964-January 1965. Similarly, he has been a deputy from his native Hupeh to the First, Second, and Third NPC’s (which opened in 1954, 1959, and 1964).
In the fifties and sixties, Li received a series of new appointments, some of importance and others that were largely nominal or symbolic. When the Academy of Sciences created four de-partments in May-June 1955, he was named to the Department of Biology, Geography and Geology, and in October of the same year he was named to the Academy’s Committee on Scientific Awards. In March 1956, when the State Council established the Scientific Planning Commission, Li was named as one of the vice-chairmen, holding the post until the Commission was merged with another in November 1958. From 1953 to 1954 he served as a member of the Central Election Committee (established to prepare for the NPC elections), and from 1954 to the present he has been a vice-president of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association. He has also served on ad hoc committees created to honor special occasions or persons, for example, the 40th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement (April 1959), the 50th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution (September 1961), and the 80th anniversary of the birth of writer Lu Hsun (September 1961).
Politics
Unlike many present-day Chinese scientists and scholars of note, Li has apparently not been heavily burdened with political responsibilities by the Communists. Although he has nominally served on the National Committee of the China Peace Committee since 1949, he does not seem to have been required to take part in the political self-criticism sessions that have been the lot of so many of the non-Party intellectuals. An important exception to this lack of participation in political affairs took place in 1952 in connection with the Asian and Pacific Regions Peace Conference (see under Liu Ning-i). Li was active in the preparations for the conference and was an official Chinese delegate when it was held in Peking in October 1952. One of the principal themes expressed at the conference was the alleged use of bacteriological warfare by the United States in the Korean War, a propaganda theme constantly stressed by the PRC throughout 1952. After the meetings closed, a declaration was issued in the name of the conference condemning the United States for its alleged use of bacteriological warfare and atomic weapons, Li was one of the signers for the Chinese.
Until 1958 the Communist press often described Li as a “non-partisan,” a term used by the Communists to apply to persons who belong neither to the CCP nor to any of the eight so- called democratic political parties. The term is used to symbolize the cooperation, or united front, between virtually all other elements of Chinese society and the CCP. Up to and through the year 1958 Li’s importance as a “non-partisan” leader was probably only exceeded by Mme. Sun Yat-sen and the cultural leader Kuo Mo-jo. Then, late in 1958, it was announced that Kuo, Li, and a few other prominent “non-partisans” had been admitted to the CCP. Though this action must have somewhat weakened the image of the united front, the Party apparently felt it more useful to claim the support of such prominent scientists as Li as Party members.
Understandably, Li’s far-ranging international scientific contacts have been utilized by the PRC. He attended the second congress of the Communist-dominated World Federation of Scientific Workers (WFSW) in Prague in the spring of 1951, and at this congress was elected a vice-president of the WFSW, a post he held for the next 11 years. For his work and writings, Li has also been honored by foreign countries, particularly the Soviet Union. In 1958, for example, he was elected as an “academician” of the Department of Geology and Geography of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and in the same year received the 1958 A. P. Karpinsky gold medal (named for a prominent Soviet scientist) for his “outstanding work” in geology, paleontology, petrography, and mineralogy. Years earlier, in 1945, he had been given an honorary doctorate by the University of Oslo. Li’s international contacts are regularly illustrated by his numerous appearances in Peking as a host for visiting scientific groups. Thus, as a scientist of international reputation, Li was called upon in August 1964 to deliver the closing address before the Peking Scientific Symposium, a gathering that brought together 367 delegates from 44 countries (mainly from Asian, African, and Latin American nations).
It is difficult to assess the importance of any scientist in China, particularly when, as in Li’s case, admission to the CCP came so late in life. Li was 69 when he became a Party member. However, at least one important Western study of science in Communist China suggests that his contribution to the Chinese Communists has been a significant one. His significance may follow from the importance placed upon geology in a nation seeking to exploit its natural resources, and when taken together with the apparent ease with which Li has escaped political problems, implies that his talents have been utilized to a greater degree than those of many scientists now working in China.
Connections
Little is known of Li’s private life aside from the fact that he is married to Hsu Shu-pin. Nothing further, however, is known about her background.
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Born
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Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
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Political Party
Chinese Communist Party
Education
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1918
Career
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1964
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1930 - 1933
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1943 - 1949
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1949
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1949 - 1954
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1953 - 1954