Li Wenxiang, born in 1952 in Meixian, Guangdong, China, was a migrant construction worker who became one of the country's most notorious serial killers. His criminal activities between 1991 and 1996 earned him the moniker "The Guangzhou Ripper".

Li's killing spree began on February 22, 1991, when the body of a woman in her early twenties was discovered in Guangzhou. She had been sexually assaulted and mutilated, with her genital region removed post-mortem. Over the next six months, Li claimed five more victims, all of whom were impoverished sex workers. His modus operandi involved raping, strangling or stabbing his victims, followed by mutilation and dismemberment. The bodies were often discarded in the city's numerous informal rubbish dumps.

The Chinese government's policy of suppressing information about such crimes meant that these murders received little to no press coverage domestically. However, international attention was drawn to the case in March 1992, when one of Li's victims washed ashore in Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post reported that the victim had likely drifted from the mainland, as no corresponding missing persons reports had been filed locally. The victim had been slit nearly her entire body length and then sewn together again, with fingers severed. The head of Guangzhou's provincial Criminal Investigation Department remarked, "In all my thirty years with the force, I have never come across anything like this. Perhaps he copied from the West."

Li's attacks ceased for a period, leading authorities to believe the perpetrator had either moved or been apprehended for other crimes. However, the murders resumed with increased brutality, including the use of a hammer to bludgeon victims. In November 1996, Li made a critical error when one of his intended victims survived and identified him to the police. She recognized Li as a migrant ex-farmer who had joined a local construction crew. Upon arrest, Li confessed to the murders, citing a deep-seated hatred for sex workers stemming from a personal grievance where he felt cheated by one upon his arrival in Guangzhou. 

​On December 18, 1996, the Intermediate People's Court found Li guilty on all counts and sentenced him to death. Given the protocols of the Chinese state, it is likely that he was executed shortly thereafter.