Guangzhou’s influential mayor Li Ziliu leaves transformative legacy
- During his six-year mayoralty, Li forged business and cultural links with neighbouring Hong Kong, promoting exchanges and trade
- His tenure as leader of the city in southern China coincided with rocketing economic growth in the 1990s, kick-started by Deng Xiaoping
Li died in the city which made his name after a sudden heart attack, according to Nanfang Daily, Guangdong province’s official newspaper.
The retired dignitaries were thanked for their contribution to the development of the province and were wished good health and a happy new year, according to a Nanfang Daily report.
Li’s six-year tenure as mayor of provincial capital Guangzhou began in 1990. Two years later, then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping kick-started the country’s long-needed economic reform during a tour of the province.
After three years of stalled economic activity because of the various rectification campaigns which followed the 1989 crackdown on the pro-democracy movement, Guangzhou’s growth rocketed.
By the time Li retired in 1996, the city was transformed into a hub for foreign trade and manufacturing, with a GDP of more than 260 billion yuan (US$37.1 billion), compared to 35.7 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in 1992.
