UNIQUE LI: Meet Spain’s only Chinese Guardia Civil officer

THE ONLY Chinese member of Spain’s Guardia Civil has become a social media sensation after the force tweeted his picture to demonstrate multiculturalism.

More than ten nationalities are in the Guardia and 1,127 agents were born abroard.

Thirty-five-year-old Li was born in the city of Zhenjiang in China but moved to Spain with his parents who were in search of a better life when he was just six-years-old.

After doing business studies he joined the army in Spain  – becoming the first Chinese person to do so.

But from an early age he wanted to be a policeman.

In 2004 he passed all the Guardia Civil entrance tests  – except one.

“In the first measurement they misjudged and said that I was only 1.68 metres tall. So they measured again and I was the minimum height of 1.70cm.” he explained.

Li joined the Guardia Civil in 2004 and says: “I owe everything I have to the Civil Guard. It gives me the bread of every day and I feel 100% Spanish.”

He has a Spanish DNI and has renounced his Chinese passport.

Li lives in Fuenlabrada, Madrid, with his Romanian wife, and has two children, Martín and Sofía