Xi'an Incident
Li was later appointed the head of the CPC's Jiangxi Protection Branch ("Zhengzhi Baowei Fenju"), Executive Director ("Zhixing Buzhang") of Political Protection for the Chinese Soviet, and Chief of the Red Army Political Protection Bureau. Upon arrival in Shanxi at the end of the Long March, Li became the chief of the CPC International Liaison Department. In 1936, after the Xi'an Incident, he was appointed as Secretary in charge of the CPC delegation based there. During the Xi'an Incident, Li served for the first time as a principal negotiator, roles that he would repeat later on in Panmunjom (1952–3) and Geneva (1954).