Wan Li gradually faded from public view after 1993, making occasional appearances but otherwise heeding his own view that retired politicians should not interfere with the workings of the party and state. Bo Yibo died in January 2007, leaving Wan Li as the sole living pre-revolutionary party elder. Many historians have also classified Wan Li as one of the "Eight Immortals" of the Communist Party, i.e., elders with revolutionary experience who were called upon to make the most important decisions facing the Communist Party.