China and India are close neighbours linked by mountains and rivers and the Chinese and Indian peoples have enjoyed friendly exchanges for thousands of years.

When Li returned to China in 1955 the country was firmly under the control of the Communist Party. In 1985 he was named minister of the State Education Commission and was elected to the Politburo and the Party Secretariat. During the Tiananmen protests of 1989 Li used his authority as Premier to declare martial law and in cooperation with Deng Xiaoping who was the Chairman of the Central Military Commission to order the June 1989 military crackdown against student pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square Beijing.

As Premier Li was the most visible representative of China's government who backed the use of force to quell the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Li Peng (born 20 October 1928) served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China between 1987 and 1998 and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress China's top legislative body from 1998 to 2003. Li also advocated for a largely conservative approach with Chinese economic reform which placed him at odds with General Secretary Zhao Ziyang who fell out of favour after 1989.