His first tournament as a professional was the 2008 Jiangsu Classic, where he finished last in his group, although he managed to beat the 2008 World Championship runner-up Ali Carter 2–0. In qualifying for the first ranking event of the year, the Northern Ireland Trophy, Li beat Robert Stephen 5–1 and David Morris 5–4 to reach the last qualifying round, where he was defeated 2–5 by Andrew Higginson. This was the closest he came to reaching the main stage of a tournament during the season, with it ending when Li lost 9–10 to Daniel Wells in the second round of World Championship qualifying. Li finished the year ranked world number 71.