JAMAICA — Yechao Li, a senior at St. John’s University, said he is eagerly looking forward to graduating in May and stepping into his future, having already made an arduous journey to get to this point. 

Li has come from China to Queens by way of South Carolina — fleeing religious persecution in his native country and finding freedom in the U.S. 

Li, 21, who is majoring in law studies, is a cadet in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) — called the Red Storm Battalion — and can often be spotted on St. John’s sprawling campus wearing his Army fatigues. 

Upon graduation, he will continue his military service while also pursuing a law degree. He is applying to various law schools, including St. John’s. 

Li views military service and a law career in the same light — as ways to serve others and live out his religious beliefs. 

“I have this Christian faith … this idea of sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice. I believe that’s what the Army is about, and that’s what Jesus was about — sacrifice,” explained Li, a member of the Queens Christian Alliance Church, a non-denominational church. 

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The idea of becoming a lawyer has its roots in Hangzhou, a city in Zhejiang Province, eastern China, where he grew up.  

“It goes back to my father,” Li said. “He organized salons of citizen movements for citizen freedom in China and had law professors from some prestigious Chinese universities attending, and I want to be an attorney to protect freedom.” 

Li arrived in the U.S. on a student visa in 2018. His father, Qiucai Li, and mother, Liping Ye, followed him a year later, arriving in 2019 after being granted asylum following years of religious and political persecution in China. 

Li, who has become a naturalized U.S. citizen, has vivid memories of life in China. 

“We were facing persecution from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” he recalled. “My dad organized a lot of these citizen movements, and because of that, we would be stopped by the local police. Local police will literally knock on the door to have tea with him, meaning that they wanted to interrogate him to get information.  

“Even though I was young, I realized the value of freedom through my father.”  

In China, Li and his brother, Muyao Li, attended Home Academy, a Christian school that the Chinese government did not sanction. 

When the government engaged in a crackdown on religious schools from 2014-2018, his school was often raided, he said. Police would search the premises looking for evidence of religious instruction, such as Bibles. 

Li said it was a frightening time.  

“There’s one instance where the teacher told my class to go hide in the forest behind my school because the police were coming,” he recalled. “That’s one of the scenes that I remember vividly.”  

Li’s parents originally planned to have him attend college in the U.S., but the crackdown accelerated their plans. Instead, he left China in 2018 and traveled to Greenville, South Carolina, to attend Bob Jones Academy, a Christian school that was affiliated with Home Academy. 

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Li attended Bob Jones Academy as a high school freshman, living with a host family. When his parents arrived in 2019, the family resettled in Flushing, Queens. 

Li then enrolled in Francis Lewis High School as a sophomore and graduated in 2022. He had been accepted into St. John’s University but chose to postpone college, preferring instead to enlist in the Army to receive training as a medic. 

He enrolled in St. John’s as a sophomore (he earned freshman year credits in the Army) and joined the ROTC program under the Army’s Simultaneous Membership Program (SMP), which allows enlisted soldiers serve in the ROTC. 

Li relishes the chance to serve and is enjoying the camaraderie he has found in the Red Storm Battalion.  

“Cadets in this battalion, they are a unique group of people,” he said. “They are committed to service and sacrifice.”  

Looking back on his long journey, Li said his faith kept him going.  

“I want to say it’s grit,” he said. “I want to say it’s resilience and perseverance. But nothing beats God.”