Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping has led China since 2012 as general secretary of the Communist Party, and has concentrated power more than any leader since Mao Zedong. Born in Beijing in 1953, he is a princeling: his father Xi Zhongxun was a revolutionary veteran and vice-premier who was purged in 1962. During the Cultural Revolution the family was persecuted, a half-sister died, and Xi was sent at fifteen to Liangjiahe village in Shaanxi, where he lived in a cave dwelling and did farm labour for seven years. He joined the party after repeated rejected applications, studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua, and made his career in the provinces — Hebei, Fujian, Zhejiang and then Shanghai — with a reputation for being unremarkable and clean. He became general secretary in 2012 and president in 2013. His anti-corruption campaign has disciplined more than a million officials, removing genuine graft and political rivals in the same operation. In 2018 the National People's Congress abolished the two-term limit on the presidency, and he took a third term in 2022, ending the succession norms built after Mao. His signature policies are the Belt and Road Initiative of infrastructure lending across Asia, Africa and Europe; military modernisation and island-building in the South China Sea; and common prosperity, which curbed the property and technology sectors. Repression has intensified. Around a million Uyghurs and other Muslims were detained in Xinjiang camps, which the UN said may constitute crimes against humanity; the 2020 national security law ended Hong Kong's autonomy; and dissent and civil society have been suppressed. The zero-COVID policy held deaths low into 2022, then ended abruptly after protests.
- Lived: 1953 CE – ?
- Nationality: Chinese
- Roles: General Secretary of the CCP (2012-present), President of China (2013-present)
