In that year, he travelled under the name "Zheng Min" (鄭民) to Shuitou, Pingyang County, Zhejiang, claiming that he intended to reconnect with his old friend Wei Zhijian (魏志健).
[5][6] According to a later official report by Chinese authorities, Li convinced Wei that he had been appointed emperor by two individuals, "Zhu Gang" (朱綱) from the United States and "Wulinbietuo" (烏林別托) from the Soviet Union.
These two had allegedly founded the "Zishen Nation" in secret in accordance with the dying wishes of Sun Yat-sen, China's provisional first president, and had built an underground nuclear weapons factory in Tongling.
[7] Li's project was not uncommon by itself, as hundreds of people have proclaimed themselves emperors or empresses in China since 1949; however, most of these pretenders gathered only very small groups of followers and were quickly arrested by government forces.
[11] According to researchers Yu Chen and Shenghua Zhang, Wei went to Fujian where he attempted to forge connections to the anti-Communist government on Taiwan, although without success.
[12] Instead, Wei encountered a man named Xu in Mingxi who claimed to possess an "imperial jade seal"; he and Li procured the alleged heirloom, cementing the latter's authority as self-proclaimed emperor.
In early 1985, Li and Wei travelled to Shanxi, where the former gained the contract-rights for a coal mine, intending to turn it into a "major enterprise" as well as provisional headquarters for the movement.
[14] Researcher S.A. Smith described Li as "monarch of impressive longevity",[3] finding it interesting that no public security bureau (PSB) crushed his statelet for five years despite Zishen's leadership making no secret of its aims.
[3] The PSB later claimed that the sect had intended to launch an armed uprising in Ninghua on Chinese New Year of 1986,[5] allegedly producing a potion to render people unconscious for this purpose.