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.