Editing Wan Li (section)

==Early life and education==
[[file:万里故居_2020-04.jpg|thumb|Wan Li's former residence, located in Dongping County, Shandong Province. Now it has become a patriotic education base.]]
Wan was born to an impoverished family in [[Zhoucheng Subdistrict]], [[Dongping County]], [[Shandong]] province.<ref name=shandong>{{cite news|title=万里的"山东足迹"(图)|url=http://news.163.com/15/0716/10/AUKTSSRH00014AEE.html|work=Netease|date=July 16, 2015}}</ref>  Wan aspired to become educated from a young age, and was admitted to a provincial-run teacher's college located in [[Qufu]] in 1939.  After joining the school, Wan founded a book club to study Marxist–Leninist works. After the student-led [[December 9th Movement]], revolutionary and anti-Japanese fervour spread across campuses all over China, motivating youth to take up the cause for the country's future. Wan returned to his native Dongping County and became a part-time teacher while devoting most of his time to the revolution and agitating for resistance against Japanese invaders.<ref name=shandong/>

Wan Li joined the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) in 1936,<ref name="WW">Editorial Board, ''Who's Who in China: Current Leaders'' (Foreign Language Press, Beijing: 1989), p. 662</ref> and served in party administrative positions, many in [[Shandong]] province, from county level on up. Wan led the party organization in his native Dongping County in between 1937 and 1938, Propaganda and Organization Department director in Taixi Prefecture in 1938–40, deputy head of propaganda for Western Shandong regional CCP committee in 1940, and Secretary of the party's 2nd, 7th and 8th Prefectural Committees in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Area in 1940–47.<ref name="WW"/> In the last phases of the Civil War, Wan Li served as Secretary-General of the Border Area committee (1947–49).