Li Lianxiu

Li Lianxiu (; December 1923 – 10 November 2019) was a Chinese military and police commander with the rank of lieutenant general. A veteran of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War, he was appointed Commander of the 38th Army of the People's Liberation Army in 1978. In 1984, he was appointed the second Commander of the People's Armed Police (PAP), a year after its founding, serving until his retirement in 1990.

Republic of China Li was born in December 1923 into a tenant peasant family Yinan County, Shandong, Republic of China. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he enlisted in the Eighth Route Army in August 1938 and joined the Chinese Communist Party in the same year. Serving in the Shandong Column and later as a platoon commander in the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, he participated in almost 100 battles against Japanese invaders in Shandong. In October 1987, he led the PAP operation to put down the Tibetan unrest. When the 38th Army entered Beijing under a new commander, the PAP was ordered to open a path for the army through the barricades and protesters on the roads leading to the Tiananmen Square. In the night of 3 June, the PAP forces were able to reach the square without causing bloodshed, using only stun batons and fibreglass shields to dispel the crowds, whereas the 38th Army that followed them opened fire on the protesters and committed the Tiananmen Square massacre. According to Gao Xin of Radio Free Asia, this was a major embarrassment for the Chinese government and the military. A few months after the crackdown, Li and three other top officers of the PAP were dismissed in February 1990, and he officially retired.

Li was a delegate to the 12th and 13th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. He also served as a member of the 8th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Li died on 10 November 2019 in Beijing, aged 95.