李慎之（1923年8月15日－2003年4月22日）二十世纪晚期以来中国大陆自由知识分子的代表人物，国际问题专家。
早期
李慎之原名李中，生于江苏无锡，祖父是米店小老板，父亲以商会文书和报社记者为生，参加过辛亥革命。中学时期阅读了大量文史哲类著作，包括胡适的《中国哲学史大纲》。
[编辑] 1949年前
1941年至1945年，先后就读于北京燕京大学经济系、圣约翰大学经济系和成都燕京大学，期间参加中国共产党外围组织。毕业后担任过中学教员和杂志社编辑。1946年，进入新华日报社，后去延安，在新华通讯社国际部任编辑。1948年11月加入中国共产党。
[编辑] 1949年后
1949年起，新华社国际部编辑组组长、副主任，负责《参考资料》（即所谓“大参考”）和《参考消息》。曾参加板门店谈判。1954年至1957年，任周恩来外交秘书。反右期间，因为提倡“大民主”而被毛泽东亲自打成右派，开除共产党党籍。
[编辑] 文革后
1973年回京工作。参加中共中央国际问题写作小组。其间，陪同邓小平出访美国，担任顾问。1980年负责中国社会科学院美国研究所的筹建。1982年任该所所长。1985年后，兼任中国社会科学院副院长。1989年后辞职。
[编辑] 晚期
研究自由主义，对中国近代以来历史和政治进行了深刻反思，在海内外有较大影响，被中国的自由主义者誉为中国世纪之交思想领域的领军人物，著有《风雨苍黄五十年》。
Li Zhenzhi (李慎之; 1923-2003) was a prominent Chinese social scientist and public intellectual. For long a trusted spokesperson of the Chinese Communist Party, he rose to become Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Dismissed from this position for blunt criticisms of the regime, he emerged in the 1990s as a powerful critic of authoritarianism, and a prominent exponent of Chinese liberalism.
His death in 2003, which had been preceded by a series of widely circulated professions of his liberal commitment, prompted an outpouring of adulatory writings, securing his posthumous status as a champion of intellectual freedom under difficult circumstances.
From 1941 to 1945 Li studied economics in Beijing (Yanjing University), and Shanghai (St. John's University). In November 1944, he participated in the Communist Party's secret "National Salvation Association of Democratic Youth."
Formally joining the Party in 1948, he became international editor in chief and Deputy Director of the Xinhua News Agency and later served as Premier Zhou Enlai's diplomatic secretary. From late 1978 to early 1980, Li was a member of the International Issues Writing Group established by the Central Committee. Meanwhile, he accompanied party supremo Deng Xiaoping on his visit to the USA, serving as adviser to the delegation.
He was transferred to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1980 to set up the United States Research Institute, of which he was appointed Director in 1982.
In 1985 he became a vice president CASS , retaining his directorship of the United States Research Institute. He was dismissed in 1990 due to blunt criticisms of the June Fourth events in Tiananmen, and took medical retirement in 1995.
There has been controversy about Li's liberal-democratic credentials, focusing on his failure to completely break with the Communist Party. According to contemporary critics like Cao Changqing (a US-based journalist) and Zhong Weiguang (a scholar and writer based in Germany), he compares poorly with Eastern bloc liberals like Milovan Đilas (Djilas), or, in China, resolute non-collaborators like Chen Yinke and original, if tragically persecuted thinkers like Gu Zhun.
Xu Youyu responded to this view that conditions for Chinese intellectuals had been considerably harsher than for East Europeans like Djilas; to be fair, Li should be placed in comparison with other committed but "enlightened" communists like Zhou Yang and Yu Guangyuan.
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