Chin Li was a lieutenant in the Chinese military and later a colonel in the International Fleet.[1] He was first introduced in Earth Awakens.
History[]
Earth Awakens[]
Lieutenant Li was assigned to work at the Dragon's Den. One day he was given the assignment to pick up the Mobile Operations Police 10 kilometers southeast of the Dragon's Den. There he met Deen and was surprised to see an 8 year old named Bingwen with the soldiers. Li tried arguing with Deen that the child would use up resources at the overcrowded Dragon's Den, but reluctantly agreed to allow Bingwen to come as it was the only course of action he could take. Lieutenat Li then asked the MOPs to disarm themselves, but Deen also refused that order as he felt it left them at a disadvantage in case of a Formic ambush.[1]
Back at the Dragon's Den, Lieutenant Li ordered Private Hun to take Bingwen to the Claw barracks. While Bingwen was talking with Mazer Rackham, Lieutant Li interrupted when Mazer mentioned a classified piece of information. Lieutenant Li interrupted again when it was time to leave because he was on a schedule escorting the MOPs.[1]
Lieutenant Li was later assigned to be Bingwen's teacher in military school. He escorted Bingwen, Pipo, and Niro north in a commandeered Formic transport. During the ride, Lieutenant Li gave Bingwen 100 demerits for not addressing him correctly and told him that he was Bingwen's teacher.[1]
Lieutenant Li took Pipo and Niro to a train terminal in Chenzhou, where he abruptly left with Bingwen after leaving them with another soldier. Li then allowed Bingwen to speak freely about the abrupt departure in order to teach Bingwen about military procedure. Li and Bingwen then rode in a two-passenger train for a short period of time before boarding another train elsewhere.[1]
The second train made an abrupt stop at one point where bandits had blocked the railway. Li went to the engine where he used the radio to discover the intentions of the bandits, whose leader Shihong told him that they simply wanted food as their village was starving. Li then went back to plan on how to kill the bandits, who he saw as traitors. Li noticed that Bingwen had gained the trust of the bandits and invited several of them on board to get supplies. While on the train, Bingwen killed Shihong and his other three men, while other Chinese soldiers killed the other bandits. Li then told Bingwen good job for gaining the trust of the bandits.[1]
The Swarm[]
Some time in the three years after the First Formic War, Li was made a Captain and later handpicked men for Bingwen's squadron. If the men were found to respect Bingwen, Li would replace when with soldiers even more unyielding than before.[2]
When Bingwen was caned and was transferred to the medical wing, Li revealed to him that China had agreed to give troops to the International Fleet, and he had been ordered to assemble a group of soldiers for training in the Belt. Bingwen was selected, and would go to the Variable Gravity Acclimatization School with Li as his commanding officer.[2]
Li arrived next to the Bay of Bengal to escort Bingwen aboard the I.F. spacecraft that would take them to the school in the Belt. He and Bingwen discussed whether or not China should have given troops to the International Fleet or not. After some time, the ship was having difficulty quadrangulating their coordinates, and Li went to talk to the captain. A moment later, Li asked Bingwen to follow him. Bingwen explained to the pilot what was wrong with the calibration and offered to fix the problem for him, but it would require him to monitor the calibrator the rest of the flight.[2]
After arriving at the space station dock, Li and Bingwen transferred to a shuttle to Luna. Before going to sleep, Bingwen realized that Li had damaged the calibrator dish before the flight to test Bingwen, which Li did not deny.[2]
On Luna, Mazer Rackham was assigned to Colonel Li's unit in order to train Li's children combatants on how to fight in zero gravity. Li and Rackham were going to take the group to VGAS in order to train them in variable gravity situations. Upon Mazer's arrival, Li introduced him to his students to discover that Mazer disagreed with Li's use of children for combat in a personal conversation. Li forced Rackham to fight with Bingwen in order to prove the worth of his child soldiers. Upon believing he had won Rackham's appreciation, Li informed Rackham that he needed to be ready at 0700 for travel to the Belt.[2]
After arriving on a cargo ship headed for VGAS, Mazer Rackham met with Li to discuss making adjustments in order to begin training Li's boys for anti-grav combat. The two suggestions Mazer made included rearranging a cargo bay for anti-grav combat in tunnels and building a battle arena on the top of the ship during flight to train for combat in open spaces. Li told Rackham he would contact Rear Admiral Zembassi about the changes, and they would regretfully have to wait for the materials.[2]
During their flight, the discussion of the Formic-occupied asteroids in the solar system led to the ship changing its destination to the asteroid Castalia. Li was tasked with organizing the plan, but delegated most of the details to Mazer and Bingwen. However, soon after their arrival Vaganov confronted Zembassi with the problems in his plan, as he believed that by blowing up the Formic-created atmosphere around the asteroid they would destroy any discoveries about the bioengineered Formic bugs that could be obtained. Mazer and Zembassi were against the idea of sending in men to the asteroid, as the volatile atmosphere presented a high risk, but Vaganov had already conferred with the Polemarch and Strategos, and after detailing the fact that the cadet program was secretive and nobody would know if all the cadets died on the asteroid, Vaganov took his leave back to his quarters, and his plan was to be implemented. Through discussion with Rear Admiral Zembassi and Li, Mazer decided to take fellow soldiers Kaufman and Rimas with him on the mission into the asteroid, along with Bingwen as he could fit into the tunnels.[2]
After Bingwen discovered the Hive Queen daughter-general and destroyed the asteroid, Li discussed Bingwen and his status as a child soldier with Mazer as they watched the boy be saluted by each marine aboard the ship.[2]