Li was born on June 28, 1945, in Sha County, Fujian Province, China.

Li received his doctorate in 1974 from University of Maryland under the guidance of James Yorke.

Li joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at Michigan State University in 1976 and was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1983.

[2] He also proved Ulam's conjecture in the field of computation of invariant measures of chaotic dynamical systems.

Working with Kellogg and Yorke, Li's ideas and the use of numerical methods in computing Brouwer's fixed point, part of the field of modern Homotopy Continuation methods.