Wang Li (politician)

Wang Li (Chinese: 王力; August 11, 1922 – October 21, 1996), born Wang Guangbao (Chinese: 王光賓) was a Chinese Communist propagandist and prominent member of the Cultural Revolution Group, in charge of overseeing the Cultural Revolution movement of Mao Zedong. Despite being one of the leading proponents of the Cultural Revolution, Wang became one of its victims. He was purged in 1967 after the Wuhan Incident for supporting one revolutionary group in the city over another group, and was sent to prison. He was released in 1982, but was later expelled from the Communist Party for his role in the Cultural Revolution.

Wang was originally from Huai'an, Jiangsu province. In October 1935, he joined the Communist Youth League. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1939 on the recommendation of Gu Mu. He joined the military expedition force in northeastern China, then began working for Masses Daily (大众日报), the party mouthpiece in Shandong province, as a reporter, then he became lead editor. In 1943, he became the editor-in-chief of the Communist revolutionary agitation periodical Struggle (斗争生活), then he authored a book Sunny Skies under the pseudonym Wang Li, under which he became known. During the Chinese civil war, he worked as a member of the land reform team in the Bohai Sea region of Shandong, working on training Communist land reform officials. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wang worked as a propaganda official in Shandong province.

In 1953, under orders from the authorities, Wang became a propaganda advisor to the Communist Party of Vietnam. He returned to China in October 1955, when he joined the party's commission on international activities. In 1958 he began working for the flagship Communist Party periodical Red Flag. In 1963, he began serving as deputy head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China. During the Sino-Soviet split, Wang was one of the lead authors of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, for which he received attention from Mao. In 1964 he began attending meetings of the Politburo Standing Committee and was the lead drafter of key party documents.

...
Wikipedia