Li Hongzhang (or Li Hung-chang) (1823–1901)

Chinese politician, promulgator of Western ideas and modernization. He was governor general of Zhili (or Chihli) and high commissioner of the Northern Ports 1870–95, responsible for foreign affairs. He established a modern navy, the Beiyang fleet, 1888, which was humiliatingly destroyed in the Sino-Japanese War.

Li became aware of the need to ‘learn from the West’ from his association with British general Charles Gordon during the Taiping Rebellion 1850–64, which his regional Anhui army helped to suppress. He also negotiated the Boxer protocol with Western powers 1900.