Li Zongren (13 August 1891–30 January 1969, given name Li Delin) was a Chinese patriotic personage, a strategist and leader of the New Guangxi Clique during the Republic of China. He was born in Lingui (modern-day Guilin, Guangxi Province), Li joined the United League in 1910. He participated in both the National Protection War and the Constitutional Protection Movement, and joined the Nationalist Party in the winter of 1923. In November 1924, he was appointed by Sun Yat-sen as commander of the First Army of the Guangxi Army. After driving all other contenders out of Guangxi, Li became leader of the New Guangxi Clique. In July 1926, Li led his forces to take part in the Northern Expedition. He was one of the generals directing the battle to seize Heshengqiao village not far from Wuhan, and also one of the masterminds of the April Twelfth Counter-Revolutionary Coup. Li proved no match for Chiang Kai-shek in either the 1929 Jiang-Gui War (the War between the Chiang Kai-shek Clique and the New Guangxi Clique) or the 1930 Central Plain War. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Li was made commander in chief of the Fifth War Zone and chairman of Anhui Province. Between January and June of 1938, he commanded Chinese troops to fight Japanese aggressors in several big battles including the Battle of Xuzhou and the Battle of Wuhan. Under his command, in particular, the Battle of Tai’erzhuang became the first major Chinese victory in the war against Japan, greatly boosting the morale of the Chinese military and people. After the conclusion of the war, Li joined Chiang Kai-shek and started a civil war. In April 1948, he was elected vice-president of the Republic of China. In January 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek resigned from the presidency, Li became the acting president. In April of that same year, he sent a delegation to Peiping (modern-day Beijing) for peace talks with representatives of the Communist Party of China. The talks ended in failure, and he flew to the United States in December. In August 1955, he publicized his proposal for a peaceful solution to the Taiwan issue and his opposition to Taiwan’s independence. He returned to Beijing in July 1965 and died there four years later, in 1969.