On 7 June 1959, Li was born at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Dong Cheng District, Beijing, the eldest son from three children of Li Peng, an electrical engineer, and Zhu Lin, a Russian-language translator.

[4] In 1991, Li joined Huaneng International Power Development Corporation, becoming assistant to the General Manager and beginning his career in business.

[6] In May 2008, Li was appointed to the Shanxi Provincial Party Standing Committee, joining the province's elite council of politicians.

In December 2012, he was promoted to acting governor of Shanxi, replacing Wang Jun, who went on to become Party Secretary of neighbouring Inner Mongolia.

It was generally considered customary for the governor to also directly oversee the departments for supervision, audit, and state-owned enterprise management (guoziwei), which is typically defined explicitly on the websites.

On 3 September 2016, Li Xiaopeng was appointed as the Minister of Transport by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and replaced Yang Chuantang.

[12] On 27 September 2024, he was succeeded by Liu Wei as the Communist Party Secretary of the Ministry of Transport.