Li Rui was known as a conscience within the Chinese Communist Party, a prominent reform-minded figure. In 1958, he became Vice Minister of Water Resources and concurrently Mao Zedong’s industrial secretary. In 1959, he was labeled part of Peng Dehuai’s anti-party group, expelled from the party, and sent to the labor camps of Beidahuang. During the Cultural Revolution in 1967, he was imprisoned again for eight years in Qincheng Prison. He was rehabilitated in 1979, later serving as Vice Minister of the Organization Department. In 1988, he compiled the Lushan Conference Records, revealing the truth behind Mao’s persecution of Peng Dehuai. After 1992, when the Central Advisory Commission dissolved, he held no official positions, and his final U.S. visit in 1993 was banned. Throughout his later life, Li Rui advocated for constitutional democracy and openly criticized Mao. He passed away in 2019 at the age of 102, leaving a legacy of meticulous diaries preserved at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, which provide invaluable insight into Mao and CCP history.

After death, Li Rui devoted himself to exposing Mao’s crimes. When informed by the Jade Emperor of Mao’s impending celestial trial, Mao wished to hear Li Rui’s judgment. Under the Emperor’s arrangement, the two spirits met swiftly.

Mao greeted, “You are Li Rui?”

Li Rui answered bluntly, “Exactly. Your crimes are immense. Tonight I come to hold you accountable.”

Mao was visibly alarmed. Li Rui opened directly: he recounted the Lushan Conference, being expelled from the party, sent to Beidahuang, surviving the Great Famine with aid from his wife, enduring her suffering and eventual divorce, and then eight years imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. “Your heart is cruel!” he said.

Mao defended himself weakly, claiming it was necessary to punish dissenters. Li Rui enumerated further crimes: persecuting millions in the Anti-Rightist Campaign, causing mass starvation, destroying intellectuals’ humanity. Mao admitted he valued only power and loyalty, regarding dissenters as disposable.

Li Rui denounced Mao for humiliating and enslaving intellectuals, creating a system of political obedience and personal domination, comparing it to the deviance of a tyrant using revolutionary tools as instruments of control. Mao admitted that even party ideology was subservient to his personal rule.

Li Rui continued, highlighting Mao’s personal life: multiple affairs, exploitation of his first wife Yang Kaihui, and the poetic glorification of her death as a façade. Mao conceded, explaining he used appearances and manipulation to consolidate power.

Li Rui also traced Mao’s deception in international affairs, including misleading journalists like Edgar Snow, manipulating the U.S., and exploiting geopolitical tensions with Nixon to secure China’s advantage. Mao acknowledged these manipulations, noting that successors like Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Xi Jinping continued aspects of his political methods, using loyalty, deception, and coercion to maintain control.

Finally, Li Rui asked if Mao regretted his actions. Mao admitted partial remorse: he had been compelled by the Jade Emperor to write a confession, acknowledging his lifetime of crimes and preparing for the forthcoming trial.

Li Rui concluded, “Good. After more than forty years posthumously, you show some clarity.”

Mao: “I am prepared. If the Jade Emperor sentences me to the cauldron, the fire mountain, or the pillar of shame, I will accept.”

Li Rui nodded: “Tonight, you show some remorse. That is enough for now.” He then departed, leaving Mao to confront the weight of his deeds in the afterlife.

This encounter portrays Li Rui as an unwavering moral witness, holding Mao accountable for both political tyranny and personal immorality, emphasizing the catastrophic consequences of authoritarian power unchecked by conscience.

NEXT: 74. Yuan Wencai (1898–1930)