Widow of Mao Zedong’s secretary Li Rui sues in Chinese court to demand return of diaries from Stanford University
- Political veteran’s daughter Li Nanyang says her stepmother has filed a lawsuit in Beijing asking Hoover Institution to hand historical documents over to her
- Li Rui, who died aged 101, was a long-standing reformist and researchers believe his writings could shed light on inner workings of Communist Party
The widow of Mao Zedong’s personal secretary has filed a lawsuit to prevent the publication of his diaries, which are held in a US university and could shed invaluable light on the inner workings of the Communist Party.
Li Rui, who joined the Chinese Communist Party in the late 1930s and died aged 101 in Beijing in February, not only witnessed the party’s inner circle in Mao’s day, but was later put in charge of the Central Organisation Department, the party’s personnel agency, in the 1980s.
There he was responsible for identifying promising young cadres, some of whom eventually rose to the highest echelons of Chinese politics.
The long-standing reformist was also known as one of Mao and the party’s most outspoken critics.
Li’s diaries are held by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, but according to his daughter Li Nanyang, her stepmother Zhang Yuzhen has filed a lawsuit at Beijing’s Xicheng district court demanding that they be handed over to her.
The lawsuit says she is the rightful owner of the documents as the heir to Li’s estate and seeks to prevent his daughter or the Hoover Institution from making their contents public.