Eric X. Li

Eric Xun Li
Born	Li Shimo (李世默; Lǐ Shìmò) Shanghai[1]
Citizenship	People's Republic of China[1]
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley Stanford University Fudan University
Occupation	Venture capitalist, political scientist
Known for	Founder of

Eric Xun Li, also known as Li Shimo (Chinese: 李世默; pinyin: Lǐ Shìmò),^[1] is a Chinese venture capitalist and political scientist. He is the founder of the Chinese conservative^[2] and nationalist news site Guancha.cn (Chinese: 观察者网),^[3][4] a board of directors member at the China Europe International Business School,^[5] and a trustee of the China Institute at Fudan University.^[6][7] Li has published several opinion pieces in Western media outlets where he criticized liberal democracy and praised what he calls the "Chinese meritocratic system" and the Chinese leadership.

Biography[]

Li was born and raised in Shanghai. He went to the United States for higher education in the late 1980s. He received his BA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He also has a PhD in political science from Fudan University. In 2000, he returned to China and founded Chengwei Capital, with an investment portfolio of over $2 billion. Its top investments include Youku, an Internet-based television service, and Huazhu Hotels Group, a chain of Chinese budget hotels.^[8]

In 2011, Li founded Guancha.cn, one of China's largest news and opinion media outlets.^[9][10] Guancha is regarded as holding a strongly ultra-nationalist stance, in line with Li's own views.^[11][12][13]

Li also serves on the board of directors of China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), the board of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and the (FSI). He is a trustee of Fudan University's China Institute, a trustee of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive of the University of California, Berkeley, a trustee of the San Francisco Symphony, a trustee of Asia Society Hong Kong, a member of the international board of the New York Philharmonic, a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which organizes the annual Shangri-La Dialogue.^{[14][9][15][16][17]}

Views[]

In an op-ed he wrote for The New York Times in 2012, he put forth the idea that China needed a different development framework, around a different idea of modernity. The Chinese system, he says, is meritocratic, highly adaptable despite the one-party rule, long term-oriented, pragmatic and non-individualistic.^[18]

In a 2012 op-ed and a 2013 TED Talk, Li argued against the idea that human societies develop in a "linear progression" toward a single political end, and asserted that neither communism nor electoral democracy should be singularly spread throughout the world, as there exists more than one way to run a successful modern nation; as an example, he cited China as a nation which has prospered under a "meritocratic system" and alleviated poverty without elections.^[19][20] In the TED talk he listed corruption, pollution and demographics as main challenges for China.

In a 2018 opinion piece he wrote for The Washington Post, Li said it was "a good thing" that General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and paramount leader Xi Jinping abolished his term limits to rule the country indefinitely.^[21] In a 2020 op-ed he wrote for Foreign Policy, Li said that Xi is a "good emperor".^[22] In a 2021 opinion piece he wrote for The Economist, Li criticized liberal democracy in favor of China's form of governance.^[23]

References[]

Further reading[]

• Huang, Yasheng (July 1, 2013). "Why democracy still wins: A critique of Eric X. Li's 'A tale of two political systems'". TED Blog. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
• Huang, Yasheng (April 25, 2014). "Why democracy still wins: A critique of Eric X. Li's 'A tale of two political systems'". Global Policy. Archived from the original on November 8, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
• Li, Eric (December 9, 2016). "The End of Globalism: Where China and the United States Go From Here". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
• Li, Eric (April 19, 2016). "Watching American Democracy in China: Liberals and Conservatives After Trump". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved December 22, 2016.

External link[]

Media related to Eric Xun Li at Wikimedia Commons