Today, nearly three years into the pandemic, Xi continues to back draconian restrictions to contain outbreaks and insists on using home-grown vaccines rather than more effective imported ones. He likes football, claims to swim 1,000 metres a day and is a fan of Sleepless in Seattle, The Godfather and Saving Private Ryan. 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. His small company evolved into a conglomerate with interests all over the province. The Economisthas launched a podcast titled "The Prince," on China leader Xi Jinpings rise to power, in time for the Chinese Communist Party Congress, After his experiences during the Cultural Revolution, and nearly two decades navigating the corruption, crime and extraordinary changes in Fujian, Xi knew how power worked. Xi Jinping is born into the top rung of China's elite. Attacking Stalin, as the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev did in 1956, sowed the seeds of ruin. It was his response to the bitterness that made him unusual. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. By Sue-Lin Wong. Closer to home, Xi was watching the party lose control in other, more fundamental ways. We may never know. October 9 2022. For most of his decade in power, Xi Jinping . Hosted on Acast. As head of the party's General Office, effectively Xi's chief-of-staff, Ding has been a crucial part of . Chinese President Xi Jinping has spent the past decade steamrolling internal opposition and increasing his control over China. March 16, 2023 12:41 AM | 1 min read. After the Chinese army crushed the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, she had performed on the square for the troops. Even Xis wife, the singer Peng Liyuan, looked like the model of an American First Lady compared with her less glamorous forebears. Xi, meanwhile, was working the family name. For more China coverage, subscribe to The Economist and find a special off Giving freer rein to the masses was dangerous. Mr Xi is no Maoist. Even Deng, who tried to introduce a more orderly system of succession, wielded ultimate authority years after stepping down. This makes no senselawlessness and the rainforest crisis. How much does it matter to him if China and the West part company? Listening to this podcast gave me deeper insight into why the insanity continues to fester and grow in China. Assets worth more than $14bn were seized from Mr Zhous family and associates. His father was tortured. Mark R. Cristino/Reuters Xi Xinping used the annual legislative session . (A photo of that performance, like everything else about that dark period, is now heavily censored in China.). Mr Biden tried to build a rapport with Chinas future leader: they awkwardly played a little basketball together during a visit to a school. All rights reserved. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 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. He was meticulous in that job. Chris Johnson had recently left the cia, where he had worked as a China analyst. The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, a week-long affair that begins Sunday, will make Xi's consolidation of power official by renewing his positions as leader of the Chinese Communist Party and commander of the Chinese military. Why? When Xi Jinping walks on stage after the Chinese Communist Party congress to mark the official beginning of his third term in office, there will be no drama, no pumping fists. California: Do Not Sell My Personal Information, China wants to change, or break, a world order set by others, Xi Jinpings economic revolution aims to spread growth, The crisis over Taiwan is yet another test for Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping has nurtured an ugly form of Chinese nationalism, Xi Jinping is reinventing state capitalism. They privately criticised Mr Xis lacklustre predecessor, Hu Jintao, for having let the country drift and the party lose its discipline. 00:00 / 00:00. From outside China, the massacre in Beijing was a seminal incident in the history of the Communist Party. By the late 1990s, Lai was a household name. (In public, Xi Jinping has talked of only four events in his life that made him cry. Dont underestimate it. Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters. Our weekly podcast on China. XI JINPING is the most powerful person in the world. Nobody at the top talks. Without explanation, his aides cancelled meetings with foreign dignitaries, including Americas then secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. These fables tell us how Xi wants to be seen: a man who withstood great pain before rising to his rightful place in the highest office. Unusually for a leader-in-the-making, he had spent 17 years in one provinceFujian on the south-eastern coastbefore getting his first job as a provincial party chief in 2002 in neighbouring Zhejiang. As Xi Jinping stands on the brink of power, the emergence of a flamboyant rival deepens the crisis.Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod. Pero no pas mucho tiempo para que ese mismo ao reapareciera sentado en el banquillo en un juicio que dur un da. Will he allow an obsession with preventing the spread of covid-19 to cripple one of the worlds biggest engines of economic growth? are hosted by Sue-Lin Wong, China correspondent forThe Economist. My father told me, now is goodwe have hope for our political system.. Before Mr Xi emerged as leader-in-waiting in 2007, he had kept his head down. But that official, Gao Yang, ended up disclosing the note's content at a meeting of the province's Standing Committee. 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. The Economist Podcasts The Economist News 4.4 3.3K Ratings; Every weekday our global network of correspondents makes sense of the stories beneath the headlines. His fathers connections had helped him move to Fujian, where he rose through the ranks. Outside observers are acutely sensitive to such absences. California: Do Not Sell My Personal Information, speeches are often released only months or years after the event, eight-part podcast on Xi Jinping called The Prince, Sarah said she was raped by peacekeepers. The new group will then meet to choose the core leadership for the next half-decade. 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. But what I see is not just the superficial things: the power, the flowers, the glory, the applause. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. The . This makes no senselawlessness and the rainforest crisis. Xi has ripped up that rule book, consolidating power in himself and scrapping a convention that leaders are limited to two five-year terms. Just over a decade ago, President Xi Jinping was a virtual unknown. Podcasts; Films; Subscriber events; The Economist app; . Forgot? Speculation about why Mr Xi went dark has ranged from a health problem to an assassination attempt. Sep 7th 2022. Very in-depth and fascinating information. With the help of his father, in 1979 Xi got a cushy job as a private secretary to a top general, Geng Biao, who had been asked to modernise and strengthen the Peoples Liberation Army after China suffered unexpected losses in a brief war with Vietnam. The Prince launches on September 28th. The Economist's Sue-Lin Wong finds out why Xi kept faith in the Communist revolution.Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod. Once Xi Jinping became the number one, my father was so happy, recalls his daughter, Nanyang Li, who now lives in America. Mr Xi wanted to be "not just the first among equals, but just plain first.". The Economist's Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top in a new podcast series launching on September 28th. By cloaking himself in communism, he would be seen by the party elite as a safe pair of hands. Mar 14 2023. He may be more in tune with business than his boss is, but he . He has identified himself personally with Chinas zero-covid strategy. 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. 24:58 Seed of doubt . In the spring of 1989 huge pro-democracy demonstrations broke out in Beijing. Across China people were using these technologies to share grievances. The couple had sent their daughter to Harvard University. (The elder Xi had also visited America and had his photo taken with Mickey Mouse.) For Xi, ensuring that China does not follow the fate of the Soviet Union means ensuring the party never loses its way again the chaos of the Cultural Revolution or the pro-democracy protests of 1989 cannot be repeated. He has conducted sweeping purges of the party and security forces to remove the corrupt and political enemies (including many allies of those elders). The Economists Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top in our eight-part podcast series. The iron cone, so heavy . His father was also a brutal disciplinarian. On October 16th the party will convene a five-yearly congress. 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. 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. This will be unprecedented in the post-Mao era. China's central bank echoed President Xi Jinping's warning that the US is seeking to suppress the world's second-largest economy, an unusual move that suggests the central bank could be . The problem during the Cultural Revolution wasnt the party itself, he concluded. Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod. 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. What I see is not just the superficial things: the power, the flowers, the glory, the applause, said Mr Xi in 2000. This makes no senselawlessness and the rainforest crisis. For Xi personally the 1990s were a period of steady ascent. Some of their observations are quoted in this article. First, assessments in 2012 of Mr Xis personality were based largely on his family ties. But taking Taiwan remains a stated party goal. 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.. Not much has changed. 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. How is he exporting the brutal lessons he has learned about power politics to the rest of the world? The former Communist Party chief in Shanghai is a protg of Xi Jinping. Floral clothes, floral shoes, there was no way Id ever want to wear any of this stuff but I had no option.. The norm for these posts has been a maximum of two five-year terms. 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.. 0 coins. 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. Ng Han Guan/AP. This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy are joined by Sue-Lin Wong, who until recently covered China for the Economist and hosted an eight-part podcast series all about Xi Jinping called The Prince. He was the son of Xi Zhongxun, a veteran of the revolution that brought the party to power in 1949. 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.. The title of The Prince, a new podcast from The Economist about Chinese leader Xi Jinping, is a reference to Machiavelli's leadership manual, and to what series host Sue-Lin Wong . After next months party congress, when the new leadership line-up is revealed, much attention will be paid to the unprecedented third term as general secretary that he will almost certainly be granted. Xi will be in Russia from . Mr Bo, a member of the Politburo, was arrested for corruption and abuse of power early in 2012. But just as Xi was finally reaching the top of the party, an uneasy feeling began to spread that its grip on power might be wavering. They visited turkey farms and corn fields. His half-sister killed herself to avoid similar treatment. 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.. "Xi Jinping will be thinking, 'at last, I'm completely in charge; the elders have gone'"Jiang Zemin dies Also on the daily podcast: a promising new Alzheimer's treatment and our . Mr Li had sent a subordinate to investigate his suitability. Xi Jinping was 13 when he was dragged into a courtyard and forced to don a dunces cap. Copyright The Economist Newspaper Limited 2023. If you're already a paid subscriber, please sign-in. The conclusions of this series have grim implications for China and the world. The Prince is the epic story of Mr Xi's turbulent past, how he has changed China and how he is . It was a good opportunity for him to show, Im not going to be dictated to by any retired person, reckons the ex-spook. those challenges, I was able to gain access to fascinating people who illuminate Xi Jinpings story., Chinese journalists making a podcast like this would risk jail, Over the past few months The Economist has spoken to a wide range of people with insights into Mr Xis personality, from former officials in the West to Chinese familiar with the secretive world of their countrys elite and the influences that may have shaped Mr Xis political preferences as he rose to power. Over the next decade, hundreds of thousands of protests broke out against corruption, environmental pollution and labour abuses. The Prince on Apple Podcasts. Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to Moscow next week, where he will hold talks with his strategic ally Vladimir Putin just over a year into Russia's war . That experience may have bolstered Mr Xis belief in a strong party. But what of the new disease? De la noche a la maana no se supo ms de l. Ding Xuexiang Executive vice-premier. A place for the dirtbag left and friends to discuss podcasts, Marxism, and shitposting. A lot of people didnt understand my decision, he would later recall in an interview. Several others, including Chinas former security overlord, Zhou Yongkang, and two retired generals, were accused of being in cahoots. Hosted on Acast. Xi Jinping is born into the top rung of China's elite. Xi Jinping has stressed the need to oppose "pro-independence" influences in Taiwan, as he closed the National People's Congress (NPC) after a week in which the rubber-stamp parliament handed . By the time he experienced his own humiliation, his father, Xi Zhongxun, had already been purged as a close adviser to Mao. 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. To Mr Xi, the party as an institution matters more than it did to Mao. FOR DECADES, Chinas leaders have staked their claim to rule on economic growth. Even imagining a China without him, it is hard to be sanguine. gripping episodes.. Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at . Those optimists a decade ago included Chinese people familiar with the partys inner workings. Similar corruption cases were emerging all over the country as Chinas economy roared and officials and businessmen sought to make a quick buck. His advisers are just as remote; sometimes we dont even know their names. 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. He would tell us that we too would be revolutionaries, said Xi in an interview in 2003. decodes why Xi Jinping's re-focusing . Mr Biden was accompanied by Evan Medeiros, who was the National Security Councils China director. But his family is torn apart while he is still a child. Hadnt America won? On the third floor was a spa. The cold war was over. In terms of how Mr Xi has chosen to craft his image, the contact proved more correct than the optimistic liberals. I see the cow shedsmeaning Red Guard detention housesand how people can blow hot and cold., Few people dare to blow cold about Mr Xithose who have done so have been jailed or otherwise punished. Xi Jinping is born into the top rung of China's elite. He was very quiet and a little bit timid, says Mr Wu, who is now at the National University of Singapore. Its not like C or Sea. We examine the lessons to be drawn from his legacy. This was the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the Peoples Republic and Xi Jinping somehow came out of it looking like the only clean official in Fujian. At China's 20th Communist Party congress in October Mr Xi is expected to ignore convention to secure a third term as party chief. No one, now, is allowed to shout down with Xi Jinping. The protesters in Fujian were angry not just at the lack of accountability and democracy, but also the corruption that had taken hold. Mr Xi is rapidly building up the hardware needed to do so. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. Lai, tipped off, fled to Canada. Im personally making the plans. One week later, Li Wenliang, one of the eight doctors punished for talking about the virus, died from the new coronavirus. There are two main reasons. 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. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. 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. He would avoid chatting to them, and took up smoking as an excuse to take breaks. Xi did something different. The first time he came across meat there he was so hungry he ate it raw. Despite his larger-than-life, domineering personality and rule-changing ways, Mr Xi represents continuity in Chinese politics as much as change. How does Xi survive? As Mr Xi puts it, China is experiencing changes not seen in 100 years at home and globally. Hed be smacked if he didnt kowtow to his father properly at Chinese new year, according to a family friend, who remembers Xi Zhongxun saying, People who dont respect their parents at home will be disasters once they enter the real world. The children were sent away to boarding school; when they came home for holidays, his father would make us line up against the wall to lecture us, said Xi. 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. CORRIGE - China: presidente Xi Jinping visitar Rusia de lunes a mircoles en aparente muestra de apoyo a Vladmir Putin The Economist 's Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top and what . See acast.com/privacy for more information. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. Seven years into his rule, Xi Jinping had already consolidated power, launched a brutal crackdown on corruption that ensnared 4m people, including some at the highest level of the party, and set up his own parallel system of governing to bypass the established machinery of state. All rights reserved. Some provincial leaders were watching rival factions battle in Beijing and awaiting the outcome. I finished the entire series in a couple of days. This makes no senselawlessness and the rainforest crisis. There is no evidence that Xi ever went to the Red Mansion during the nearly 15 years hed spent in Fujian by then. One of them was Li Rui, who had served as a deputy minister and as Maos personal secretary in the 1950s, had later spent nine years in jail for criticising Mao and who had been restored to high office in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping. What . This week, in the first of two episodes, we look at what can be done to reduce demand, Also on the daily podcast: remembering Oe Kenzaburo, a Nobel-winning author, Our podcast on markets, the economy and business. He sees a growing threat from America, as it tries to strengthen bonds with democratic countries to counter Chinese influence and to sever Chinese access to cutting-edge technologies. The Economist's Sue-Lin Wong finds out how he rose to the top in a new podcast series launching on September 28th. Several others were given lengthy jail terms. Unlike Mr Putin, he does not give rambling monologues on state television. 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. Mr Xi, who is 69, is therefore likely to rule, formally or informally, for as long as he is fit enough to do so. Chinese politics is a black box, says Wong. But his family is torn apart while he is still a child. The couple reportedly fought a lot, and three years into the marriage, Xis wife wanted to return to London. The Economists Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, interpret the targets set at the National Peoples Congress with The Economists China economics editor, Simon Cox. Sept. 7, 2022. Our weekly podcast on democracy in America. They may be proved right. THE CHINESE leader who took over a squabbling party following the Tiananmen Square massacre surprised the world by stifling dissent, overseeing a staggering economic awakeningand occasionally breaking into song. 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. Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod. We heard so much about this that our ears became callused. The children of this revolutionary elite were told that they too would someday take their rightful place in the Chinese leadership, read one American diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks in 2009. He was an economic reformer who, under Deng, oversaw the creation of Chinas first special economic zonewhat is now the dynamic megacity of Shenzhen. It is also a . But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. Now the focus on prosperity is shifting to self-reliance and security. Despite its heavy drag on the economy, and ever louder grumbling from citizens affected by draconian lockdowns, he is unlikely to abandon it until he is sure that doing so will not lead to a surge in deaths. Mr Xi, it appears, has decided to be ruler for as long as he wants. The future of Chinas 1.4bn people, and so many more people beyond, hinges on the mind of one man. Hosted on Acast. AP. Your browser does not support the