US trial begins in battle over Mao minister’s diaries

A trial has begun in California to decide whether Stanford University can keep the diaries of a high-ranking Chinese official. The case is being portrayed as a fight against censorship by the Chinese government.

The diaries belong to the late Li Rui, a former secretary of Mao Zedong, the founder of communist China.

After Li's death in 2019, his widow filed a lawsuit to have the documents returned to Beijing because they belonged to her.

Stanford denies this, saying that Li, who had been a critic of the Chinese government, donated his diaries to the university because he feared they would be destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party.

The diaries, written between 1935 and 2018, cover much of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) rule. During these eight turbulent decades, China emerged from isolation and became indispensable to the global economy.

“If [the diaries] “When they return to China, they will be banned… China does not have a good track record when it comes to allowing criticism of party leaders,” Mark Litvack, one of Stanford's lawyers, told the BBC before the trial began.

The BBC has contacted lawyers for Zhang Yuzhen, Mr Li's widow, for comment.

Mr. Li was a prominent CCP figure known for his reformist views and was both revered and shunned by the party.

As a young, outspoken cadre, he caught the attention of Mao, who made him one of his personal secretaries in the mid-1950s. But the position was short-lived.

When Li criticized Mao's views at a political rally, he was expelled from the party and spent years in prison. He was among hundreds of party officials and public figures, including close allies of Mao, who clashed with the mercurial leader.

Like some of them, After Mao's death in 1976, Li returned to prominence, heading the Ministry of Hydropower and a CCP department that selected officials for key positions. Within the party, he was allied with the more liberal, open-minded faction that advocated reform.

After his resignation, he continued to lobby for party reforms. But his ruthless, sharp-tongued criticism of politicians, including President Xi Jinping – whom he dismissed described as “low-educated” – angered the government. His writings were censored and his books were banned in China.

However, as a party elder, he continued to be treated with respect and enjoyed privileges, and when he died, he was given a state funeral.

As he navigated the levels of power, he meticulously noted observations about Party politics and important events in his diaries.

These include his report on the Tiananmen massacrewhich he witnessed from a balcony overlooking the square and described in his diary in English as the “Black Weekend”. It is a highly sensitive topic that is rarely discussed in China.

His daughter Li Nanyang began donating his documents, including his diaries, to the Hoover Institution in Stanford in 2014, while he was still alive.

In an interview with BBC Chinese in 2019 after his death, she said this had fulfilled her father's wish.

This year, Ms. Zhang filed a lawsuit in China against her stepdaughter Li Nanyang.

Li Rui's second wife, Ms. Zhang, reportedly argued that he wanted her to decide which of his documents would be published and that they had been wrongfully disclosed to Stanford.

The widow said the diaries contained “deeply personal and private matters” from her life with Li. Because the diaries are publicly available at Stanford, she said their display had caused her “personal embarrassment and emotional distress.”

A court in Beijing ruled in Ms. Zhang's favor and ordered the release of the diaries.

Stanford has rejected this ruling. Its lawyers argued that “Chinese courts are not impartial in politically sensitive cases like this” and that the university was not given a chance to defend itself.

The trial, which began in California on Monday, revolves around a separate lawsuit the university filed against Ms Zhang in the United States.

Stanford is asking a California court to declare the university the rightful owner of the diaries.

The university's lawyers argue that Li Rui wanted to donate his papers to Stanford because he “was concerned that the regime would try to suppress his portrayal of modern Chinese history” and he “feared that the materials would be destroyed.”

Stanford was allowed to keep copies of the diaries, but argues that the original documents should also be kept to comply with Li's wishes.

“Li Rui wanted his diaries, including the originals, at Hoover,” Litvack said. “That's why they are at Hoover and we fought to keep them at Hoover.”