[1] He also served as Chairman of the CCP Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilization, de facto head of propaganda and media relations.

Li Changchun was born in February 1944 in modern-day Dalian, Liaoning, then administered by the Empire of Japan as "Dairen", Kwantung Leased Territory.

He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1965 and graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology in 1966.

He had succeeded then-Henan governor Cheng Weigao, who had been transferred to Hebei province as part of a three-province 'leader swap' orchestrated by the party's leaders.

Li said that initially being the top leader in the province made him uncomfortable as he had to shoulder all responsibility, especially at a time when other regions were developing economically at a pace much faster than that of Henan.

Rural incomes remained stagnant during his term, and his government was also criticized for its role in the Plasma Economy, where farmers were encouraged to donate blood through unsafe practices, triggering China's largest outbreak of HIV/AIDS.

[10] As expected, Li was named a member of the Politburo Standing Committee after Jiang's departure as General Secretary of the CCP in 2002.

[12] In addition, Li was elevated from eight position in the protocol sequence to fifth, in front of Hu Jintao's putative successor Xi Jinping.

There were high hopes among some in media circles that Li would signal a more liberal change from the strictures of former propaganda chief Ding Guangen.

Li had made a major speech advocating that media stay "close to the public" and to real events, "instead of mechanically following Party directives.

The hopes were short-lived however, though, after the Central Propaganda Department began closing newspapers, firing journalists, and would not allow foreign companies to produce content for TV stations in China.

by Lu Chuan to continue running in theaters in the face of strong pressure from nationalists who objected to the sympathetic characterization in the film of a Japanese soldier.

[18] In May 2009, American diplomats reported in a cable that was later leaked that Li was a driving force behind China's renewed pressure against Google to comply with Chinese censorship laws.