Li Bai (spy)

For other uses, see Li Bai (disambiguation).

A sculpture of Li Bai, located at Century Park, Pudong, Shanghai

This is a Chinese name; the family name is 李 (Lǐ).

Li Bai (Chinese: 李白; 1910–1949), alternate names Li Huachu, Li Pu, Li Xia and Li Jingan, was a famous spy of the China Communist Party, born in Liuyang, Hunan.

Biography

Li Bai born in a peasant's family. In 1925, he attended the China Communist Party, and in 1930, he joined into the Chinese Red Army Red 1st Regiment. Soon, he studied Wireless technology at Red Army Telecommunication School at Ruijin, Jiangxi. When graduated, he was arranged into Red 5th Regiment as the chief and political commissar of radio station. In 1934, he followed the main strength of Red Army for Long March.

After the outburst of Sino-Japanese War, in October 1937, Li Bai was sent for coordinating and establishing the secret radio station in Shanghai. In 1942, his secret radio station was found by Japanese Army; Li Bai and his wife were arrested. After the rescue of the CCP, Japanese Army thought it was his private radio station, so they were released in May 1943.

His technology skill favored Kuomintang, and then he was hired as wireless operator at the Institute of International Issues of the Republic of China (中华民国国际问题研究所) in Chunan, Zhejiang. After World War II, the institute moved back to Shanghai, therefore, he became to be an important CCP spy into Kongmintang.

During the Chinese Civil War, Li Bai sent a great number of secret information to northern communist army. In 1948 December 29, he got the top secret intelligence of the whole KMT's defense line across Yangzi River. In the dawn of the next day, when he was sending this telegraph, the radio was detected and he was arrested by KMT. In May 7, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek, the Chief President of KMT, signed the writ of execution. He was executed in Yangsi, Pudong. Thanks to these telegraphs, the CCP only spent less than two months to bring soldiers over Yangzi River, and then occupied Nanjing (the capital of the Republic of China), Hangzhou, and Shanghai.

Memento

Li Bai is the model of the Chinese movie The Eternal Wave. Some of his pasts were placed in the National Museum of China. The place of his death, currently named Century Park, has his bust statue. Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications also has his sculpture on campus.