Dr Li was born in a humble family in 1968, only a few moths younger than me. His father died when he was a small child. Being raised by her hard working mom with other siblings under extreme poverty, he was always determined to change. After successfully entered and graduated from China’s most prestigious Beijing University with a PhD on constitutional law, he was dreaming for China to become a constitutional democracy where human rights and religious freedom will be guaranteed and implemented by a democratic state.
At first Being a teacher of law in a university, he joined China’s democracy dissident circles helping them draft charters and provide legal advice. For that, he was kidnapped and tortured multiple times. Then he started a publishing busienss envisioning pubic education by introducing books he translated by western liberalism authors such as Robert Smiles. However his wife was drastically turned around after he read and translate a book about the persecution and perseverance of the French Protestantism known as Hugenots in 17th century. He found the source of strength, justice and love in facing evil is located in persistent Christian faith. He discovered the constitutional foundational triangle among faith, virtues and freedom without any of which the foundation will be shaken.
In 2005 he surrendered his life to Christ Jesus. Not only his own life style was transformed, his way of doing things had become different.
Instead of liberal intellectuals’ decades-long discussions of confrontational visible grand themes and resistance like constitutional governance and reform, he characterized his strategy as an “ant strategy.” He said :”recently I’ve had a realization: I’m willing to become an ant. I want to take the rights and freedoms in the books and, through case after case, bring them into the real world bit by bit. This is my personal stance. The path to this is legal procedure. In summer, the ant gathers food. Today, I’m also transporting food under the framework of rights defense, and in doing so accumulating experience and results for the arrival of the day”

It was this “ant” idea that had become Dr. Li’s driven philosophy for his legal defense work in China for the past decade until his death.
Like an little ant he is a humble man even though he was known as President George W Bush’s friend with whom they met three times. He rarely accepted media interviews and shouted out slogans. He was just traveling around China taking up hundreds of cases where millions of citizens’ religious freedom and human rights were violated. He patiently and methodically followed each and ever step of the legal procedure accepting to the letter of the law.
As a little patient ant who moved the soil bit by bit in order to build a home, Dr Li envisioned his strategy in human rights lawyers movement. “All you can do is loosen the screws one by one and turn the soil over clump by clump,” he said. Dr. Li hopes by doing that will make the gradual dismantling of autocracy from the margins possible in China.

In January 2017, I invited him to travel to Washington, D.C. for ChinaAid 15th anniversary held at the Library of Congress. He anticipated a major crackdown was looming large already.l. “From this point forward, human rights in China will enter its darkest period.” But he was intimidated. He pledged that rights defenders in China would use their God-given wisdom and intelligence to promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. The most notable thing was his optimistic tone based on God’s Word. He quoted Romans 13, declaring “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.”

Although that “little boldest ant” has died in such a young age under such a mysterious circumstance that the world had not got a way to figure out the truth cause of his death, yet Dr Li should be pleased to know the dirt he had moved in his 49 years life will be a solid foundation for the big pile for the constitutional democratic plaza for a future new China. The chief shepherd of his faith Jesus Christ has surely declared you as a “ Well
Done, good and faithful servant.”

Brother Baiguang, please enjoy the feast Jesus has prepared for you. See you!
Bob Fu