Li Chengpeng, born in 1968, also known as “Big-eyed Li,” had a successful career as a popular sports reporter in Beijing. He enjoyed early notoriety for his reporting on corruption in soccer, which is a national obsession, and his political ambitions. In recent years, Li has come to be known for social commentary and his scathing essays on current affairs. For the most part, his work circulates in China unofficially and he also publishes a column in Yibao, an independent media site operating outside the People’s Republic of China.
In late 2022, Li published “Take it from me, we are losing the war because we can salute too well,” a letter addressed to the year 2022. The title is a quotation from All Quiet on the Western Front, a famous anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque. In the letter, Li observes that: "In retrospect, a lot of the things that happened during 2022 seem ridiculous, even absurd. Upon closer inspection, however, they still reflect the irrefutable logic of power."
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