| Eric Xun Li | |||||||
| Birth Name: | Li Shimo | ||||||
| Birth Date: | 4 May 1968[1] | ||||||
| Birth Place: | Shanghai, China | ||||||
| Occupation: | Venture capitalist, political scientist | ||||||
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Eric Xun Li, born Li Shimo (; born 4 May 1968[1]), is a Chinese venture capitalist and political scientist. He founded the Chinese nationalist news site (Chinese: s=观察者网|links=no),[2] [3] and is a board of directors member at the China Europe International Business School,[4] as well as a trustee of the China Institute at Fudan University. Li has several opinion pieces published in Western media outlets where he criticizes liberal democracy and praises what he calls the "Chinese meritocratic system" and the Chinese political leadership.
Li was born and raised in Shanghai. He went to the United States for higher education in the late 1980s. He received his BA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He also has a PhD in political science from Fudan University.
In 2000, Eric Li returned to China and established Chengwei Capital, an evergreen venture capital fund headquartered in Shanghai. With a cumulative total investment exceeding $2 billion U.S. dollars, the firm has invested in over 100 companies across various sectors such as communication software, enterprise software, financial services, IC design, niche component manufacturing, healthcare, and media.[5] [6] Its top investments include Sunny Optical Technology, AAC Technologies, Sungrow Power Supply, Hanting Hotel, Youku, China Renaissance, AInnovation, and Roivant Sciences. Its current investment portfolio also includes a number of unicorns, among them, Hellobike, WM Motor, Baibu, XAG, Sila Nano, and StarFive. He serves as a member of the board of directors of the RISC-V International Association.[7]
In 2011, Li founded Guancha.cn, a digital news platform.[8] [9] [10] [11] Zihao Chen of University College London viewed the site as an online entity with "very conservative political attitudes".[12]
In an op-ed he wrote for The New York Times in 2012, he said that China needed a different development framework around a different idea of modernity.
In a 2012 op-ed and a 2013 TED Talk, Li advocated for China's one-party state on the grounds of "pluralism", saying that China has prospered under a "meritocratic system" and alleviated poverty without elections, and that its system is superior to Western democracy in several respects.[13] Some commentators have deemed Li's talk to be pro-China propaganda spread on a Western platform, using Western-style arguments and flexible rhetorics.[13] [14]
In a 2018 opinion piece he wrote for The Washington Post, Li argued it was "a good thing" that General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and paramount leader Xi Jinping abolished his two-term limits for governing the country.[15] In a 2020 op-ed he wrote for Foreign Policy, Li said that Xi is a "good emperor".[16]
In a 2020 interview with David Barboza, Eric Li described the China Policy of the Trump administration as an "irrational rivalry".[17]
In a 2021 opinion piece he wrote for The Economist, Li criticized liberal democracy in favor of the "current Chinese government" (which he described as a different form of democracy).[18]
Li also serves on the board of directors of China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), the board of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI). He is a trustee of Fudan University's China Institute, a trustee of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive of the University of California, Berkeley, a trustee of the San Francisco Symphony, a trustee of Asia Society Hong Kong, a member of the international board of the New York Philharmonic, a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which organizes the annual Shangri-La Dialogue.