4. Chairman Mao’s little girl Li Ma chose to lead a quiet, modest life in China
Communist China famously enforced a ‘one child’ policy for many years, encouraging its citizens to have just one baby for the good of the nation. The regime’s founding father, Mao Zedong, however, did not practice what he preached. The revolutionary-turned-dictator had three children. Or at least he had three official children. Mao was a renowned womanizer who used and abused his power, so it’s likely he had many more children he simply never recognized. He certainly did recognize Li Na, however. The only child of his marriage to his fourth wife Jiang Qing, she was born in August 1940 and continues to live in Beijing.
Li Na was born just before the start of the Chinese Civil War. Still a revolutionary, her father assumed the alias of Li Desheng during the 1940s, which is why his daughter took the name Li rather than the more famous Mao. From the very start of the Communist regime in China, Li Na was indoctrinated and brought up as the ideal citizen. She attended a state school and then Peking University, from where she graduated with a degree in history in 1965. After that, she went to work for the newspaper of the People’s Liberation Army, furthering the cause of her father.
Despite her status, Li Na has always chosen to keep a low profile. According to most accounts, both she and her sister Li Min have preferred to stay out of the limelight. They both live in relatively modest apartments in downtown Beijing. At the same time, however, they have contributed to the state-led veneration of Chairman Mao, appearing in several official events over the years. Speaking of her father, Li Na recalls him as a good man rather than a ruthless tyrant. For instance, she has credited him with giving her a political and cultural education, plus she claims that he personally schooled her from the age of 7, while also teaching her ‘morals’.
More recently, Li Na has served as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. According to official accounts, she is married and has two children of her own, though her private life is kept just that.