[12] For the first three years of his career, Li managed funds at an investment bank in Toronto, Canada,[3] acquiring Canadian citizenship in the 1980s.

[9] In 1990, Li began building his own company, STAR TV, a pan-Asian satellite-television network that streamed American television.

According to Wired magazine, the service "triggered a vast cultural shift, injecting a massive dose of Western popular entertainment into... more than 50 countries [by 2005]."

[9] Li subsequently oversaw PCG's investments in real estate,[3] financial services, technology, and media & telecommunications.

[13][non-primary source needed] He was an executive director at Hongkong Electric Holdings from 1993 until 2000,[9] and chairman of Singapore-based Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited starting in 1994,[14][9] a role he still held in 2020.

[14] With Li as chairman, in December 2013 HKT agreed to acquire CSL New World Mobility, a subsidiary of Telstra, for HK$18.8 billion.

[16] In March 2015, PCCW Media acquired the mobile video provider Vuclip, and launched the streaming service Viu.

[29] In 2015, Li then appointed former Canadian foreign affairs minister John Baird as a non-executive director to both FWD and PineBridge.

[36] By 2018, he had invested a total of US$930 million in the project, with an onsen, apartments, and two hotels including a Park Hyatt[35] nearing completion by late 2019.

[30] Also in 2019, Li's HKT announced it was establishing one of the first licensed virtual banks in Hong Kong, and in 2020 launched 5G wireless services.

[40][41] He was previously the Governor of the World Economic Forum for Information Technologies and Telecommunications,[9] as well as a representative of the Hong Kong government at the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) from 2009 to 2014.

[42] He was praised by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Rita Lau, for "helping [to] raise Hong Kong's profile in this important regional business forum".

Li also established a story time program for children kept home to prevent infection, and call centre support for charity fundraisers and community activists.

Under Li, PCCW also donated $1 million to the Business Community Relief Fund for Victims of SARS, with employees volunteering man-hours as well.

[49] After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Li's PCG donated surgical masks to health care workers and NGOs in Hong Kong in February 2020.