Many expected that the son of such a reformist pioneer would be of similar kind. At the upcoming Chinese Communist Party . Life wasnt entirely luxurious. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. Xi Jinping and his wife split up: Xi knew his future was in China. After his hosts found out Xi had read Mark Twain, they took a boat out on the Mississippi. His father had three children from his first marriage and four from his second Xi was the second-youngest. California: Do Not Sell My Personal Information, The lungs of the world are under threat. . Today The Economist launched a new 8-episode narrative podcast called The Prince, exploring the life and rise to power of China's leader, Xi Jinping. Beyond a veneer of openness he carries his own umbrella, shuns suits for anoraks, pays for his own meal at a dumpling shop he is an enigma. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 00:22:56 - During his decade-long reign in China, Xi Jinping has amassed more power and wielded it more ruthlessly than any leader since Mao Zedong. In 2007, he was anointed heir-apparent. I thought being shot once is no different from being shot 100 times so whats there to be afraid of? The rebels gave him five minutes to repent. Several were sentenced to life imprisonment including party and government officials who worked in security, customs, the armed forces, tax and finance. People who have little contact with power, who are far from it, always see it as mysterious and novel, Xi Jinping once said. Inside China, however, party insiders were less optimistic. There is no evidence that Xi ever went to the Red Mansion during the nearly 15 years hed spent in Fujian by then. A Uyghur language teacher is accused of spying for the CIA. Kaiser Kuo Published October 13, 2022. The Economist's Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top in a new podcast series launching on September 28th. The future of Chinas 1.4bn people, and so many more people beyond, hinges on the mind of one man. The Economists Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top in our eight-part podcast series. But as tensions grow with America, not least over Taiwan, studying his character has become an ever more pressing task. California: Do Not Sell My Personal Information, America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan, A new class of drugs for weight loss could end obesity. Reporter is mistaken in the pronunciation of Xi which was super distracting. Sept. 7, 2022. The Economist's Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top in a new podcast series launching on September 28th. Xi is . Your browser does not support the
element. It was a dull job. Party ideology infused everything from TV dramas to the school curriculum and office life. I had one older brother but four older sisters so it wasnt great, Xi once remembered. The Economist's Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top, and what it means for Chinaand the rest of the worldnow that he has ripped up the rule book to stay in power, perhaps for the rest of his life.For more on China listen to The Economists new weekly podcast Drum Tower (here) and subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod Hosted on Acast. This week, the largest US bank failure since the financial crisis, Published since September 1843 to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.. But his mother tossed him back out into the night in his sodden clothes, stomach still rumbling. . If he was to make a success of the family business, he needed to prove his worth to the party with a tour of duty in the provinces. Just over ten years ago, Xi Jinping disappeared. In early January 2020, eight doctors were accused of rumour-mongering by the government of Wuhan province in central China. The 1990s and early 2000s were wild years in China. All of them attended the countrys top schools. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod. The podcast features interviews with a wide range of China-watchers, peers . Party even as bitter struggles tore apart his childhood? California: Do Not Sell My Personal Information, The lungs of the world are under threat. Hadnt America won? Of the 14 men who were appointed to the pinnacle of powerthe Politburo Standing Committeeafter the party congress in 2007 and the following one in 2012, all but two were on that list drawn up four decades before. He left his army position for a low-level job as the number-two official in a rural county in Hebei province. Rather than turn away from the ideals of the revolution, he decided to dedicate himself to it. By the stage sat Xi Jinpings mother, pumping her fist in the air and chanting along with the hordes. Xi Jinping wasnt the only member of his family to be cast down. It was a good opportunity for him to show, Im not going to be dictated to by any retired person, reckons the ex-spook. Amid such uncertainties, most of the ruling elite would probably like a firm hand on the tilleranother helmsman, as fawning officials are beginning to call Mr Xijust as they appreciated Dengs decision to send the army into Tiananmen Square. 0 coins. The cold war was over. Xi had to remain standing until his father sat down. I finished the entire series in a couple of days. The Economist is this week releasing an eight-part podcast, called The Prince, to examine Mr Xis rise. Is he animated by a Marxist spirit that will upend the post-Mao economic order? When he was anointed leader of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, some hoped that this victim of its brutal machinery might gradually reform it. . Several others were given lengthy jail terms. Copyright The Economist Newspaper Limited 2023. Similar corruption cases were emerging all over the country as Chinas economy roared and officials and businessmen sought to make a quick buck. We examine the lessons to be drawn from his legacy. This week, the largest US bank failure since the financial crisis, Published since September 1843 to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.. A villagers campaign against corruption highlights the Chinese Communist Partys weakening grip. The other asset that Mr Xi enjoyed was his pedigree. A decade ago, President Xi Jinping set out his "China Dream" and promised it would boost . Today The Economist launched a new 8-episode narrative podcast called The Prince, exploring the life and rise to power of China's leader, Xi Jinping. But that official, Gao Yang, ended up disclosing the note's content at a meeting of the province's Standing Committee. Audio extracts can be heard in The Economists podcast series by one of this newspapers writers on China, Sue-Lin Wong. He embodies his ambition to be the true inheritor of the party. Among the first 600 or so promising young officials identified by the Young Cadres Bureau in the early 1980s, about 5% were princelings. Most party officials would take a car to inspect their local area, but Xi rode his bicycle and visited almost every township in the county, according to the memoir of one official. The "Reform Era" was launched by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and lasted through the reign Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao (2002-2012). Mr Xi was a little-known politician who had neither said nor done anything striking. Well done, Ms Wong!!! He would explain what revolution was. Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod. Ding Xuexiang Executive vice-premier. In Xinjiang party secretaries were given the final say over who would be sent to detention camps for deradicalisation. DURING HIS decade-long reign in China, Xi Jinping has amassed more power and wielded it more ruthlessly than any leader since Mao Zedong. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. October 9 2022. Xi had different ideas. Listen to this episode from The Economist Podcasts on Spotify. By cloaking himself in communism, he would be seen by the party elite as a safe pair of hands. Or maybe he was saved by his fathers name, or cut a deal. All rights reserved. It is not known what he truly thinks of the war in Ukraine, but he will continue to back Russia diplomatically, seeing it as a vital bulwark of authoritarianism. Mr Li should have been well placed to judge. In private chat groups, the doctors had been discussing a new illness in the city that was causing a mysterious pneumonia. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. Then he gave a speech invoking the traumas of the Cultural Revolution: Can these days be repeated? He has shown more might and ruthlessness than any leader since Mao Zedong, who died in 1976. The Prince on Apple Podcasts. Optimists may pin hope on change for the better in China when Mr Xi eventually passes from the political scene. On October 16th the party will convene a five-yearly congress. Despite what appears to be strong public approval of his rule, he has reason to worry. The Economist 's Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top in a new podcast series launching on September 28th. The Prince is the epic story of Mr Xis turbulent past, how he has changed China and how he is trying to change the world. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. He has boasted of the entrepreneurial . Mr Xi has created new party groups, often with himself in charge, to oversee the work of government ministries. Our podcast series investigates Mr Xis turbulent past to reveal how he seized control of China. But the Chinese president clearly believes that preserving the partys traditional ideological rhetoricno matter how out of keeping with many aspects of todays state-led capitalismis vital for keeping its 97m members in lockstep and himself in charge. In his eight years as leader of the Chinese Communist Party, the world has formed an opinion of Xi Jinping and it's not always favourable. Subscribe today to gain access to every Research Intelligencer article we publish as well as the exclusive daily newsletter, full access to The MediaPost Cases, first-look research and daily insights from Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief. More liberal-minded leaders have occasionally risen in Communist China, though never to the apex of power. He was an economic reformer who, under Deng, oversaw the creation of Chinas first special economic zonewhat is now the dynamic megacity of Shenzhen. Xi had once been expected to hand over power at this years party congress in Beijing. One of his sisters, also persecuted by Red Guards, committed suicide. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. The purge was enabled by two crucial features of Mr Xis power and personality. He was the son of Xi Zhongxun, a veteran of the revolution that brought the party to power in 1949. In the spring of 1989 huge pro-democracy demonstrations broke out in Beijing. "The Prince" covers Xis traumatic childhood and the lessons he learned, and his subsequent rise to December 8, 2021. Students are debating whether they should defy or work with them, A photographer reads the mood in the Ukrainian trenches, Published since September 1843 to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.. All rights reserved. Mr Xi, who became general secretary in 2012, was on it. But the real story of Chinas leader remains a mystery. But even the elders may have underestimated just how far Xi Jinping was prepared to take this belief and what it might mean for China and the rest of the world. Chinese politics is a black box, says Wong. During his decade-long reign in China, Xi Jinping has amassed more power and wielded it more ruthlessly than any leader since Mao Zedong. For the party to survive, they believed, it was essential to inject it with a renewed sense of purpose, and to tighten control over it. As China's Party Congress continues, Eswar Prasad looks at the general shape of China's economy, it's housing market, renminbi strength relative to the dollar, and whether President Xi Jinping . To keep the frugality and discipline of the revolution alive, Xi Zhongxun forced his son to wear hand-me-downs. This week, the largest US bank failure since the financial crisis, Published since September 1843 to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.. Control was still the guiding principle of the day. Even Xis wife, the singer Peng Liyuan, looked like the model of an American First Lady compared with her less glamorous forebears. Mar 12th 2023. Politburo Standing Committee member Ding Xuexiang attends a session of China's National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Tuesday, March 7, 2023. His half-sister killed herself to avoid similar treatment. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at . LONDON, Sept. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today The Economist launched a new 8-episode narrative podcast called The Prince, exploring the life and rise to power of China's leader, Xi Jinping. It is also a . As Machiavelli wrote, some 500 years ago, Hereditary statesare maintained with far less difficulty than new states, since all that is required is that the Prince shall not depart from the usages of his ancestors. Mr Xi may disagree with how easy that makes it sound (Machiavelli himself might have written differently about a colossus such as China). The Economist 's Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top and what . He thinks it was probably Mr Xis riposte to Communist Party elders whowhile backing his rise to the tophad bristled at his eagerness for power unfettered by their opinions. /. Derek Davison (3/16/23) Those optimists a decade ago included Chinese people familiar with the partys inner workings. Xi Jinping deployed the mastery of his political machine: he silenced Li Wenliang and others who spoke up, locked people into their homes and enacted an unprecedented surveillance system to monitor the contagion. The elder Mr Xi, who died in 2002, had been purged by Mao and rehabilitated by Deng. Chinese social media is buzzing with speculations that President Xi Jinping might step down from his position following the mismanagement of the stringent Covid-19 lockdowns accompanied by the economic slump in the country. Alfred Wu was a journalist for state media in Fujian who was assigned to cover Mr Xis activities. See acast.com/privacy for more information. He kept an office on the top floor. Mr Xi will be even more inclined to clamp down on dissent, and will become even more suspicious of private businesspeople in charge of giant firms who might challenge his policies. Like father, like son, is a common feature of Chinese political culture. At Chinas 20th Communist Party congress in October he secured a third term as party chief, and may rule China for the rest of his life. Mr Xis talk of a Chinese dream of the countrys great rejuvenation struck a chord with many. Ng Han Guan/AP. The documentary points to a big lesson: that the giants of communisms past must not be criticised. Xi has ripped up that rule book, consolidating power in himself and scrapping a convention that leaders are limited to two five-year terms. About a year later, he returned to Liangjiahe, determined to make a better go of things and, in the official account at least, became a resilient, hard-working man of the people who lived in a cave, worked 365 days a year, learned to sew and quilt, and got to know the villagers he lived among. Abroad, Mr Xi will remain just as determined to chip away at American power in Chinas neighbourhood and beyond. At one point, Red Guards threatened to kill him: They said I deserved to be shot 100 times, Xi Jinping said in an interview published in 2000. When Xi assumed power in 2012, so little was known about him that some observers were cautiously optimistic that his brief experience with American culture pointed to a more cordial future between the two powers. Mr Xi has turned sand banks in the South China Sea into fortresses, threatened Taiwan with military exercises near the islands coast and increased the deployment of nukes to keep America at bay. But the broader political elite that helped Mr Xis riseincluding retired leaders, generals and the princelingsmay prefer to keep China on much the same political track after he is gone. Without stability and unity, nothing is possible. His new wife Peng Liyuan, a singer famous across China for her patriotic hits, even sang to the troops in Beijing after the massacre. As the economy slows, the publics support may ebb. When the Cultural Revolution ended with Maos death in 1976, many rehabilitated princelings children of revolutionary families such as Xis drank and dated, lapped up Western movies and books. It needed beefing up to prevent chaos like that again. Its not like C or Sea. Copyright The Economist Newspaper Limited 2023. To Mr Xi, the party as an institution matters more than it did to Mao. Mr Xi has not shown signs of being a reckless risk-taker like Mr Putin. Party cells have been leading the mass mobilisation of people to enforce covid-related lockdowns, round up virus-carriers and put them in supervised quarantine, and conduct endless nucleic-acid tests and door-to-door inspections. Much of Mr Xis behaviour as leader, including his chest-thumping nationalism, can be explained as a response to the anxieties he conveyed to Mr Biden in 2011. How does Xi survive? The Economist' s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, interpret the targets set at the National People's Congress with The Economist . In appointing Xi as the countrys leader, the Communist Party elders had chosen a true believer, someone for whom the party was an inheritance to be protected. And when Gorbachev allowed the breakup to happen, Xi said, nobody was man enough to stand up and resist., Xi clearly thought that he was man enough. USD. According toThe Economist, the episodes ask such questions as (and we quote): Subscribe to your choice of industry specific newsletters, save $100 on conferences, search member directories, comment on stories and more. March 16, 2023 12:41 AM | 1 min read. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer, Our weekly podcast on democracy in America. 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