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Court upholds Stanford's ownership of Li Rui's historic diaries
A California court has ruled that Stanford University's Hoover Institution can retain the diaries of Li Rui, a former secretary to Mao Zedong and a prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The decision, issued Tuesday, affirms that the donation of the documents was lawful and aligned with Li's wishes to preserve them outside China.
Background: A fight over historical records
Li Rui, a high-ranking CCP official who later became a vocal reformist, kept detailed diaries from 1938 to 2019, chronicling key events in modern Chinese history. Among the most sensitive materials is his firsthand account of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, which he witnessed from a balcony overlooking the square and labeled "Black Weekend" in his notes. His writings, including correspondence, meeting minutes, and poetry, were censored in China during his lifetime.
Li's daughter, Li Nanyang, began donating his papers to Stanford in 2014, fulfilling what she described as her father's explicit wishes. However, after Li's death in 2019, his widow, Zhang Yuzhen, sued in China to reclaim the documents, arguing they contained private details about her life and should not be made public.
Legal battles in China and the U.S.
A Beijing court sided with Zhang in 2019, ordering the diaries returned to her. Stanford responded by filing a separate lawsuit in California in 2024, seeking to establish its legal ownership of the materials. The university framed the case as a defense against Chinese government censorship, arguing that the diaries would be suppressed or destroyed if sent back to Beijing.
The California court ruled that the Beijing court's order could not be enforced in the U.S. It also found that Zhang had not willingly initiated the Chinese lawsuit, citing a statement from her disavowing the legal action. The court concluded that the CCP likely financed the case. Zhang died during the trial proceedings.
Court's ruling and Stanford's response
The court determined that Li Rui had "clearly intended" for his papers to be preserved at the Hoover Institution, where they would remain accessible to researchers. In its ruling, the court noted that Li believed the CCP would "secrete, censor, redact, or destroy" his writings if they remained in China.
"This decision ensures one of the most valuable firsthand accounts of modern Chinese history will be freely available for study."
Condoleezza Rice, Director of the Hoover Institution
Stanford's legal team welcomed the ruling, stating that it honors Li's wishes and ensures the documents will remain public. "Mr. Li was very clear in his diaries and conversations that he intended for his historic documents to be preserved and maintained by Hoover," the university's lawyers said.
What the diaries contain
The collection includes Li's eyewitness account of the Tiananmen Massacre, describing soldiers firing on demonstrators, armored vehicles crushing barricades, and gunfire targeting nearby buildings. Other materials span Li's decades-long career, offering insights into the CCP's inner workings, his reformist views, and his later critiques of leaders, including President Xi Jinping.
Li Nanyang told the BBC in 2019 that her father had feared his writings would be erased in China. "He wanted the truth to be known," she said. The Hoover Institution has not yet announced plans for digitizing or displaying the diaries, but the ruling ensures they will remain in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
