Xi Jinping

Who is this?

Xi Jinping (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who is the fifth paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. He has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Party Central Military Commission (CMC) since 2012, the president of China and chairman of the State Central Military Commission since 2013. The elder son of Xi Zhongxun's second marriage to Qi Xin, Xi is considered a princeling but kept an low-key image in his early career. As a teenager, he was sent down to the rural village of Liangjiahe, Shaanxi, following his father's purge in the Cultural Revolution. He lived in a yaodong there, joined the CCP after several failed attempts, and served as the local party secretary. After studying chemical engineering at Tsinghua University as a worker-peasant-soldier student, Xi rose through the party ranks. He served as governor of Fujian from 1999 to 2002 before serving as governor and party secretary of Zhejiang from 2002 to 2007. Xi briefly replaced disgraced Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu in 2007, the same year he joined the Politburo Standing Committee and became the first-ranked member of the Secretariat. Appointed vice president in 2008 and vice chairman of the CMC in 2010, he succeed Hu Jintao as China's leader in 2012. Xi's tenure has been marked by a sweeping anti-corruption campaign and a restructuring of the People's Liberation Army, both claiming prominent officials. He initiated a battle against poverty, expanded state-owned enterprises, and promoted advanced manufacturing, import substitution, and military–civil fusion, while overseeing regulatory crackdowns on the private sector, notably real estate, technology, and for-profit tutoring. His rule has also seen a significant expansion of censorship and mass surveillance and a deterioration in human rights. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he imposed zero-COVID policies for two years before lifting them following the white paper protests. Xi has pursued a more assertive foreign policy, including toward China–United States relations, in the South China Sea, and along the Sino-Indian border dispute. He expanded China's presence in Africa and Eurasia through the Belt and Road Initiative. His 2015 meeting with Ma Ying-jeou, the first between cross-strait leaders since the Chinese Civil War, was followed by deteriorating relations under the Democratic Progressive Party. He oversaw the enactment of 2020 Hong Kong national security law, which effectively suppressed the city's pro-democracy camp. In 2018, Xi amended the constitution to remove presidential term limits and, upon his re-election in 2023, became the first Chinese president to serve more than two terms. Xi's ideology, known as Xi Jinping Thought, have been incorporated into the party and national constitutions.

Career

1. 1953
   Birth