Li Kenong

Li Kenong (李克农, 1899-1962) was a major figure in the early history of Chinese Communist intelligence, and was rewarded the rank of Colonel General in 1955. Recognized on the Chinese mainland as such, he is almost unknown in the West.

Early years

Born in Chaohu County, Anhui Province, Li was also known as Li Zetian and Li Leizhong. He became the deputy editor of the "Anqing Guomin Shibao" (National People's Daily) in 1926, entering the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1927. In this same period Li became a local propaganda leader for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the same locality, and performed local coordination for the Northern Expedition. After the CCP's break with the KMT in April 1927, Li travelled to Shanghai in 1928 to do newspaper work for the communists on the "Tieshenche Bao" and the "Laobaixing Bao" newspapers. At this time he assumed intelligence duties with the CCP Special Branch ("Zhongyang Teke") and eventually was assigned a covert role as the personal decoder to KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek. In 1929, under the direct order of Zhou Enlai, Li Kenong used a fake name, Li Zetian (李泽田) to join a KMT intelligence agency in Shanghai, specializing in radio communication and cryptography. Li excelled in his work and was promoted to the section head at Shanghai, but unbeknownst to the KMT, he was passing everything of interest along to their enemies the communists.

On April 25, 1931, Qian Zhuangfei (钱壮飞, aka Qian Beiqiu, 钱北秋, also known as Qian Chao 钱潮 1896 - 1935), one of the agents planted in the nationalist intelligence agency headquarted at Nanjing, who was directly under Li's control, saw the message from Wuhan announcing the capture of the senior CCP intelligence official Gu Shunzhang (顾顺章). Qian held the message from distribution while he sent his son-in-law from Nanjing to notify Li in Shanghai. Li immediately attempted to inform CCP leaders of the event, but April 25 and April 26 were not the day for him to contact his case officer, Chen Geng. Li decided to break the rule and went to look for Chen in one place after another and eventually found him, reporting the capture of Gu. The pair informed Zhou Enlai, who arranged an emergency evacuation of as many CCP members as possible from their hiding places in Shanghai. hundreds were saved, though not all. These events marked the end of Li Kenong's ability to serve under clandestine cover, and he fled to Mao Zedong's base in Jiangxi Province. Li was later appointed the head of the CCP's Jiangxi Protection Branch ("Zhengzhi Baowei Fenju"), Executive Director ("Zhexing Buzhang") of Political Protection for the Chinese Soviet, and Chief of the Red Army Political Protection Bureau. Upon arrival in Shanxi at the end of the Long March, Li became the chief of the CCP Central Committee Liaison Bureau ("Zhongyang Lianluoju"). In 1936 after the Xi'an Incident, he was appointed as Secretary in charge of the CCP delegation based there. During the Xi'an Incident, Li served for the first time as a principal negotiator, roles that he would repeat later on in Panmunjom (1952-3) and Geneva (1954).

World War II

Upon the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Li was appointed head of the Eighth Route Army offices in Shanghai, Nanking (Nanjing), and Guilin. He also became the CCP Central Committee Yangtze Bureau Secretary, and an assistant to Zhou Enlai. As the relationship between the CCP and KMT worsened with the 1941 New Fourth Army Incident, communist delegations in nationalist controlled regions were ordered to return to Yan'an. Li Kenong faced an impossible task of taking all of the important documents and intelligence gathered back to the communist base without being confiscated by the nationalists and he accomplished this successfully by letting his team to ride with a nationalist military convoy along the way. Li personally rode in the very same car used by the Nationalist army commander, and completed the journey without any loss.

After his successful return to Yan'an, he became the deputy director of the CCP Central Department of Social Affairs (CDSA, 中共中央社会部), under Kang Sheng. In 1942 he became the deputy of the CCP Central Intelligence Department (中共中央情报部), the staff and leadership of which partially overlapped with those of the CDSA. One of the primary tasks of him and his fellow intelligence officers was to do business with the Japanese, so that the supplies needed in communist rear areas such as medicines could be obtained. Although such actions were sanctioned by Mao Zedong himself, the communist agents and cadres involved were nonetheless persecuted decades later during the Cultural Revolution. Li may only have escaped such a fate because he died in 1962.

Chinese Civil War

In 1945, Li was placed in charge of the CCP delegation office in Peiping (Beiping, later known as Beijing), and was concurrently appointed head of the Central Military Commission Intelligence Department and Director of the CDSA, replacing Kang Sheng after the unpopular rectification campaigns led by Kang on behalf of Mao Zedong. In 1947 Li became a member of the Central Committee’s Rear Area Commission.

During the Chinese Civil War, Li Kenong continued to personally take charge of decoding and his team achieved great success with undercover agents planted in the KMT forces. KMT messages were deciphered and read by the communists, sometimes before being used by KMT army commanders on the battlefield.

On 9 August 1949, the CDSA was formally abolished: its internal security and domestic counter-intelligence remit was assigned to what after the establishment of the PRC on 1 October 1949 would become the Ministry of Public Security, headed by General Luo Ruiqing. Li Kenong continued to serve head of a reconstituted political and military intelligence apparatus, following an instruction from Mao that "Li Kenong will look after Li Kenong's business." Li became Secretary of the Central Committee’s Intelligence Commission, Director of the Central Intelligence Department, a Deputy Foreign Minister, and the Director of the Central Military Commission Intelligence Department.

Post 1949

In July 1951, continuing his role as a paramount negotiator with the enemy during the Korean War, Li joined the communist side at the Panmunjom Peace Talks in Korea as the leader of the joint PRC-DPRK delegation. In 1953 he was appointed as a Deputy Chief of Staff in the People’s Liberation Army. In 1954 he was a member of the Chinese government’s delegation to the Geneva Talks. In 1955 he was made Colonel General in the PLA and made Director of the CCP Central Investigation Department (中共中央调查部), which consolidated Chinese foreign intelligence efforts in one central department. In recognition of his long service, in 1956 Li was elected to full membership of the CCP Central Committee.

Death

Li suffered a stroke in October 1959 and was not seen in public again except for once in 1960. He died on 9 February 1962.

ources

*"Zhongyang Weiyuan: Central Committee Members from the First Through the Fifteenth Party Congresses" (in Chinese; Peking: Central Documentary Publishers, June 2001)
*"Biography of Luo Ruiqing" (in Chinese; Peking: Dangdai Zhongguo Chubanshe, 1996);
*Matthew Brazil, "China" in "The Encyclopedia of Intelligence and Counterintelligence" (ME Sharpe, 2004)