But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. After Mr Xi took over, months later, he put Mr Bo on trial. The documentary points to a big lesson: that the giants of communisms past must not be criticised. Hosted on Acast. Especially given Mr Bidens repeated suggestions that America would defend Taiwan militarily, he cannot be sure of swift victory should he decide to try to conquer it (a bigger challenge in some ways than subduing Ukraine, given its terrain and distance from the mainland). Many expected that the son of such a reformist pioneer would be of similar kind. 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. Since taking over, Mr Xi has given no face-to-face interviews to Western journalists, nor held any press conferences except brief ones alongside foreign leaders during state visits. This makes no senselawlessness and the rainforest crisis. The conclusions of this series have grim implications for China and the world. C HINA'S NEW prime minister, Li Qiang, is a puzzle. Host Anne McElvoy asks Kevin Rudd, president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former prime minister of Australia, what to expect from . 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. His father had three children from his first marriage and four from his second Xi was the second-youngest. 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, The intensity of his feelings didnt become clear until a speech he gave much later, in 2012, in which he attributed the fall of the Soviet Union to ordinary people losing faith in a corrupt party with a hollow ideology. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. Those optimists a decade ago included Chinese people familiar with the partys inner workings. Run time: 23 min, Please subscribe to The Economist for full access to print, digital and audio editions: www.economist.com/podcastoffer, Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | TuneIn, Our weekly podcast on democracy in America. Host Anne McElvoy asks Kevin Rudd, president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former prime minister of Australia, what to expect from the next era of Xis rule and the implications that could have for China and the world. I see the jailsand the hypocrisy of the world.. He behaved exactly as the party hardliners wanted. He has shown more might and ruthlessness than any leader since Mao Zedong, who died in 1976. All rights reserved. They privately criticised Mr Xis lacklustre predecessor, Hu Jintao, for having let the country drift and the party lose its discipline. Find someone else to take the job, then, Mr Johnson imagines Mr Xi as having told them. gripping episodes.. I had one older brother but four older sisters so it wasnt great, Xi once remembered. See acast.com/privacy for more information. The rising rumours about Xi Jinping stepping down started after a meeting of the party politburo standing committee, which is the collective leadership group that rules China. Most of all, Xi and his siblings were raised to believe they were the inheritors of Maos great cause. Life wasnt entirely luxurious. decodes why Xi Jinping's re-focusing . Closer to home, Xi was watching the party lose control in other, more fundamental ways. The iron cone, so heavy that he had to prop it up with both hands, was covered in Chinese characters that revealed his crime: Xi was a counter-revolutionary. The couple had sent their daughter to Harvard University. But his family is torn apart while he is still a child. In many places they seized local power, attacking party officials and party organisations for being reactionary, or insufficiently Maoist. 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. 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. 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. Xi Zhongxun was sent away, first to a distant factory, then to a labour camp: Xi Jinping didnt see his father for seven years. 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.. As head of the party's General Office, effectively Xi's chief-of-staff, Ding has been a crucial part of . It needed beefing up to prevent chaos like that again. Podcasts; Films; Subscriber events; The Economist app; . adds Editor in ChiefZanny Minton Beddoes. Introducing The Prince. He has turned a fractured party that had disappeared from many ordinary peoples lives into an omnipresent, ideologically re-charged, tech-enabled machine. The Economist has launched a podcast titled "The Prince," on China leader Xi Jinping's rise to power, in time for the Chinese Communist Party Congress, starting Oct. 16 in Beijing. Even Deng, who tried to introduce a more orderly system of succession, wielded ultimate authority years after stepping down. Our weekly podcast on China. 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. Listen on: Apple | Spotify | Google | RSS. In their words, I had lived through the nightmare of the Shanghai lockdown. In the far-western region of Xinjiang, as many as 1m Muslims had been detained their main crime, apparently, was to believe in a higher authority than the Communist Party. Mr Zhou had held the highest rank of anyone convicted of corruption since 1949. As a modest provincial official in Fujian, Xi Jinping is outshone by his celebrity wife, while colleagues are caught up in a lurid corruption scandal. Mr Bocharismatic and good-lookingwas winning public support by ostentatiously fighting corruption and appealing to lingering nostalgia for the supposedly fairer days of Mao, when the state provided housing and health care for urbanites. California: Do Not Sell My Personal Information, the upcoming Chinese Communist Party congress, The lungs of the world are under threat. Free to qualified media, marketing and advertising professionals. 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. October 9 2022. Ding, 60, is also the director of the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, a position he has held since 2017 and works closely with Xi as his de facto chief of staff . 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 . For decades, China's leaders have staked their claim to rule on economic growth. When Xi Jinping was a county party chief in the northern province of Hebei in the early 1980s, his mother wrote a note to the province's party chief asking him to take an interest in Xi's advancement. He was the son of Xi Zhongxun, a veteran of the revolution that brought the party to power in 1949. This makes no senselawlessness and the rainforest crisis. The Economist's Sue-Lin Wong finds out why Xi kept faith in the Communist revolution. The 1990s and early 2000s were wild years in China. Members of this group enjoy political advantage. The boy who once withstood humiliation and starvation at the hands of his peers will show that no one, now, can defy him. And Xi Jinpings obsession with control reaches new and brutal extremes.Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod. To a man with a hammer, a renowned psychologist once posited, everything looks like a nail. What I see is not just the superficial things: the power, the flowers, the glory, the applause, said Mr Xi in 2000. 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. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. A family friend recounts that, when Xis brother went to visit him they both became covered in flea bites; Xi begged him not to tell their mother about the conditions he lived in. It is useful for Xi to circulate such anecdotes partly because he was not, in fact, like other Chinese. All rights reserved. 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). As far as Xi is concerned, only he is qualified to navigate the passage. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. 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. Xi did something different. 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. The couple reportedly fought a lot, and three years into the marriage, Xis wife wanted to return to London. During the decade-long Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong tried to oust his critics by unleashing mobs loyal to him, called Red Guards, who beat, tortured and killed anyone they saw as an enemy. But the real story of Chinas leader remains a mystery. This week, we examine Xi Jinping's new . The former Communist Party chief in Shanghai is a protg of Xi Jinping. 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. Xi has recounted to state media how, when he first arrived in the village of Liangjiahe in north-western China, he fed a lump of stale bread to stray dogs and horrified villagers with his extravagance. He was subjected to self-criticism sessions and repeatedly hounded by Red Guards. Signs of pressure are emerging in the Chinese economy as it embarks on Xi's mission, fuelled by the coronavirus Delta variant and raw material shortages . What . 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. His mother, too, was a dedicated revolutionary who met his father in the 1940s when both were fighting against the Nationalists in the civil war (the Nationalists later fled to Taiwan). As does Mr Xi. It makes you mature earlier. He had also experienced first-hand the zero-sum game of losing power. Some of their observations are quoted in this article. Over the next decade, hundreds of thousands of protests broke out against corruption, environmental pollution and labour abuses. Mr Xis family was among those targeted. Im personally giving the orders, he said. 12 episodes. In 1985, Xi had spent two weeks in America with a delegation of five other Chinese officials. See acast.com/privacy for more information. He has called private business his native province's "golden namecard". During the Cultural Revolution, Mao tried to purge his critics by unleashing the Red Guardsspontaneously formed gangs of radicals, independent of the party. Mr Biden tried to build a rapport with Chinas future leader: they awkwardly played a little basketball together during a visit to a school. It was two weeks before Mr Xi resurfaced. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Interesting. After Deng Xiaoping unleashed economic reforms, opportunities proliferated to get rich quick. His sister Anan left China for Canada. The Prince is the epic story of Mr Xi's turbulent past, how he has changed China and how he is . Hosted on Acast. Subscribe to The Economist with the best offer at economist.com/chinapod. His fathers connections had helped him move to Fujian, where he rose through the ranks. Mr Li should have been well placed to judge. The new group will then meet to choose the core leadership for the next half-decade. 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. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. Hosted on Acast. Mr Bo, a member of the Politburo, was arrested for corruption and abuse of power early in 2012. Hadnt America won? It was a dull job. Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | RSS, Our weekly podcast on democracy in America. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. Those hopes were dashed as it became evident that Mr Xi was determined to amass immense power, wield it ruthlessly against his own and the partys critics, and use it to turn China into a global power of which the West would be in awe. According to a census in 2020, around 8.8m people live in the areas around it on . All rights reserved. But the real story of China's leader remains a mystery. March 16, 2023 12:41 AM | 1 min read. 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. Among the first 600 or so promising young officials identified by the Young Cadres Bureau in the early 1980s, about 5% were princelings. Before Mr Xi emerged as leader-in-waiting in 2007, he had kept his head down. Instead, the 2,300 members of the Communist Party present and all of China will be required to applaud Xi as he embarks on a third term of office, unprecedented since Mao. 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. Xi Jinping is a man on a mission. 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. Yet he emerges from one of Chinas darkest periods as a true believer in the party. Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. Xi ended up in a detention centre for the children of purged government officials. power. After the Chinese army crushed the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, she had performed on the square for the troops. He embodies his ambition to be the true inheritor of the party. Xi Jinping was 13 when he was dragged into a courtyard and forced to don a dunces cap. A once free and open Hong Kong was becoming a police state. Your browser does not support the