Party veteran Li Rui, still pushing for reform in China at age 95

Li Rui has written to the leaders before every Communist Party congress since 1997, urging the party he joined seven decades ago to take on political reform.

This year Li, aged 95, the former secretary to Mao Zedong , is making yet another plea for reform. But he has to contend with the fact that he probably will not see his dream come true in his lifetime.

"I have done this for the past three congresses," said Li, one of the few remaining reformist party elders. "Now the 18th congress is coming up, I still have to say the same thing.

"We need political reform, because we still have one-party rule, there is no separation of party and government powers, and there is still a Political and Legal Affairs Committee - this system is a big problem," Li sighed. The judiciary and the police on the mainland are controlled by the Communist Party through the Political and Legal Affairs Committee.

Li knows better than just about anyone alive the problems of the system.

He joined the underground Communist Party at the age of 20 and cofounded a clandestine branch while a student at Wuhan University, driven by his youthful dream of freedom and democracy to fight the corrupt and authoritarian Kuomintang regime.