The journals belonged to the late Li Rui, who served as Mao Zedong’s secretary before Communist China was founded.
Li’s widow filed a lawsuit after his death in 2019 to have the documents returned to Beijing, stating that she was the rightful owner.
Stanford disputes this. According to the report, Li, a former opponent of the Chinese government, gave the institution his diaries out of concern that the Chinese Communist Party would burn them.
Written between 1935 and 2018, the diaries document a significant portion of the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
China escaped poverty and isolation during those eight turbulent decades and rose to become a vital component of the world economy.
One of Stanford’s attorneys, Mark Litvack, warned the news prior to the trial that “if [the diaries] return to China, they will be banned… China does not have a good record in permitting criticism of party leaders.”
The press has reached out to attorneys defending Mr. Li’s widow, Zhang Yuzhen, for a statement.
