The rise of Xi Jinping, explained
How Xi Jinping became China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong
Help keep Vox free for everybody: http://www.vox.com/give-now
Subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications (🔔) so you don’t miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO
Xi Jinping, president of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012, is one of the most powerful political figures in the world. By initiating an unprecedented third term as China’s leader in October, 2022, Xi has signaled that he may plan to remain in power for life – making him the first Chinese leader since Mao Zedong to hold unchecked power over the People’s Republic of China.
But Xi’s connection to Mao goes deeper than a shared outlook that emphasizes unifying the party around a single leader. When Xi was just a young boy, his family – who had held elite party status thanks to his father’s pivotal role in Mao’s “Long March” in 1935 – was denounced during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, a chaotic decade of purges and persecution that saw even Mao’s closest allies removed from power. During this time, a teenaged Xi was forced to work hard labor in the countryside outside of Beijing, and his father was imprisoned.
Xi’s subsequent rise after Mao died in 1976 was a methodical process in using his restored elite status as leverage to gain prominent party positions in rural provinces around China, culminating in his promotion to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 2007.
From there, Xi pulled from Mao’s playbook: purging his political rivals and promoting those with whom he shared close personal ties. This process undid the work of Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, to prevent the consolidation of power around a single leader in China.
By the time his third term began in October 2022, Xi had reshaped the party and Chinese military leadership to be fully packed with Xi loyalists. And even in the face of social upheaval surrounding his failed Zero Covid policy, Xi has shown no sign of giving up any of the power he has consolidated since taking over as leader of the country.
Further reading:
These books and podcasts below helped us understand Xi Jinping’s rise, Xi’s similarities to Mao, how politics changed in the PRC since its founding, and the structure and culture of the CCP:
Coalitions of the Weak by Victor Shih (Associate Professor in China and Pacific Relations at the University of California, San Diego)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/coalitions-of-the-weak/6E99B6DB73F934166175D872B51DACD0
Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era by Cheng Li (scholar and expert in Chinese elite politics)
Party of One by Chun Han Wong (Reporter at the Wall Street Journal)
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Party-of-One/Chun-Han-Wong/9781982185732
Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first Century by Orville Schell and John Delury
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/161758/wealth-and-power-by-orville-schell-and-john-delury/
The Prince by Sue-Lin Wong (Correspondent at The Economist)
https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/the-prince
These databases and papers were also helpful in gaining a better understanding of Xi Jinping’s alliances and the CCP structure under his terms:
Decoding Chinese Politics interactive by Asia Society Policy Institute
https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/decoding-chinese-politics
CCP Elite Database by UCSD/Victor Shih
China’s Political System in Charts: A Snapshot Before the 20th Party Congress by Susan V. Lawrence and Mari Y. Lee
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46977#
Xi Jinping’s Inner Circle by Cheng Li
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Xi-Jinping-Inner-Circle.pdf
Vox is on a mission is to help everyone, regardless of income or status, understand our complicated world so that we can all help shape it. Part of that mission is keeping our work free.
You can help us do that by making a gift: http://www.vox.com/give-now
Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom
Check out our articles: https://www.vox.com/
Listen to our podcasts: https://www.vox.com/podcasts
now this feels like a classic Vox video
100% true
yep butchering xi’s name lol, not offended. just dissapointed they didnt make an effort.
@骆军骅Chinese names is difficult to pronounce so I’d cut them some slack 😂
A MASTERPIECE! Thank you, Vox!
吓死我了，这些老外太可怕了，好好的国家被扭曲的不成样子了，满满恶意，这么恐怖这国家还能变成世界第二经济体？
@黑口偶在和平年代，有着如此大量的如此吃苦耐劳且有强烈意愿改善自己生活的国民，在东亚文化的加持下，用了半个多世纪才成为世界第二大经济体，才是天理不容的。
thank dee’s nuts
Deng Xiaoping once said “Hide your strength, bide your time.”
Xi certainly heeded those words.
And he’s still doing this today, building his military and economy. His intentions are clear as they expand their claim on territories that don’t belong to them.
@Jake gtfoh what are you talking about? They’re not the US, France, UK or Russia.
@JakeNo, not at all. He gained his power following that well-known motto for us Chinese, but his philosophy of governance has gone the opposite way. Otherwise you may never know our expanding desire.
“In fact, Xi Jinping, unlike Bo Xilai, who is a more honest person, is basically a faithful implementer of this basic plan that was laid down by the party hierarchy decades ago. What he is implementing is the next step in the “three-step reform and opening-up” strategy. Originally, when Deng Xiaoping formulated the reform and opening-up policy, the first step was to solve the economic problems and realize a moderately prosperous society; after the realization of a moderately prosperous society, the next step was to end the biding of light and to build a strong socialist country. Xi Jinping is carrying out this next stage, and he is just concretizing Deng Xiaoping’s plan, which was still a vision at that time. In the process of materialization, he did not betray the basic plan of the party and the state (in Trump’s terms: the deep state) for the party and the state, but rather won greater support than Bo Xilai and Wen Jiabao because of the considerable prudence and loyalty he demonstrated in carrying it out, and because he was much more reliable than either of them.”——Liu Zhongjing
@Jake Thats an issue that goes back to forever everywhere. The problem is old world mentalities that is a global problem.
After everything you’ve produced so far, I wonder if you’ve got plans to create multi-hour documentaries?
Thank you for your work! You people produces some of the best content on the internet.
He really played the long game to gain power.
Not really he played the game of not stepping on people, not becoming beholden because of corruption and being technically proficient.
He learned from his father that wings could be clipped so unlike Icarus decided not to fly too close to the sun.
That’s why he has the role he has now he’s considered fairly impartial not a lackey of the military, the political princes or the business elite since he wasn’t brought to power by one of them and more importantly he’s more of an administrator than a political/philosophical revolutionary… His entire creed is just efficiency if it works study it, if it doesn’t get rid of it, if it’s corrupt dismantle it, if it threatens stability destroy it and this is all done relatively without prejudice.
His only enemy is inefficiency
play long time to gain power ? but he work hard , very hard for his people . i think is ok to get power in this way
@Dan PetrescuI don’t think unlimited power is great but he won it right and square.
I gotta commend the guy, he played the political game perfectly. I respect it even though I disagree with his ideals.
Fascinating focus on the consolidation of powers. I would be interested to follow up on this video with a deep dive in what is meant by “Xi Jinping Thought” as defined in the Third Resolution and the contrast between its theory of change, rhetorical tone, and consequences.
Certainly worth a video!
Just read his books. The four volumes of the Governance of China. And read Roland Boer’s “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, a Guide for Foreigners.” Great reads, very informative!
@Nathan Gibbsno, its internet everyone wants summarization, so spill it here
The content of the third resolution is unimportant here. The fact that Xi put a thought named after him into the party constitution symbolizes the amount of power Xi has.
This episode was very informative. Thank you to all the people behind it.
Vox should continue doing this type of videos
they’ve been doing them for like 10 years…
Thank you so much for this well presented piece! I loved the infographics 🌟
Wow, this was a great history lesson. Thank you! More of these please.