Xi Jinping is a Chinese politician who has been serving as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (since 2012), chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC, since 2012) and the president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC, since 2013). He is the fifth paramount leader of the PRC since its foundation in 1949.
The son of Chinese Communist veteran Xi Zhongxun, Xi was exiled to rural Yanchuan County as a teenager following his father’s purge during the Cultural Revolution. He lived in a yaodong in the village of Liangjiahe, Shaanxi province, where he joined the CCP after several failed attempts and worked as the local party secretary.
After studying chemical engineering at Tsinghua University as a worker-peasant-soldier student, Xi rose through the ranks politically in China’s coastal provinces. Xi was governor of Fujian from 1999 to 2002, before becoming governor and party secretary of neighboring Zhejiang from 2002 to 2007.
Following the dismissal of the party secretary of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, Xi was transferred to replace him for a brief period in 2007. He subsequently joined the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) of the CCP the same year and served as first secretary of the Central Secretariat in October 2007.
In 2008, he was designated as Hu Jintao’s presumed successor as paramount leader; to that end, Xi was appointed vice president of the PRC and vice chairman of the CMC. He officially received the title of leadership core from the CCP in 2016.
Xi is the first CCP general secretary born after the establishment of the PRC. Since assuming power, Xi has introduced far-ranging measures to enforce party discipline and to impose internal unity. His anti-corruption campaign led to the downfall of prominent incumbent and retired CCP officials, including Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the PSC.
He has also enacted or promoted a more aggressive foreign policy, particularly with regard to China’s relations with the U.S., the nine-dash line in the South China Sea, the Sino-Indian border dispute, and the political status of Taiwan. He has sought to expand China’s African and Eurasian influence through the Belt and Road Initiative.
Xi has expanded support for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), advanced military-civil fusion, overseen targeted poverty alleviation programs, and has attempted to reform the property sector. He has also promoted “common prosperity”, a series of policies designed with stated goal to increase equality, and used the term to justify a broad crackdown and major slew of regulations against the tech and tutoring sectors in 2021.
Xi met with Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou in 2015, the first time PRC and Republic of China leaders met, though relations deteriorated after Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidential elections in 2016. He responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China with a zero-COVID approach from January 2020 until December 2022, afterwards shifting towards a mitigation strategy. Xi also oversaw the passage of a national security law in Hong Kong, clamping down on political opposition in the city, especially pro-democracy activists.
Often described as an authoritarian leader by political and academic observers, Xi’s tenure has included an increase of censorship and mass surveillance, deterioration in human rights, including the internment of one million Uyghurs in Xinjiang (which some observers have described as part of a genocide), a cult of personality developing around Xi, and the removal of term limits for the presidency in 2018.
Xi’s political ideas and principles, known as Xi Jinping Thought, have been incorporated into the party and national constitutions, and he has emphasized the importance of national security and the need for CCP leadership over the country.
As the central figure of the fifth generation of leadership of the PRC, Xi has centralized institutional power by taking on multiple positions, including chairing the National Security Commission and new steering committees on economic and social reforms, military restructuring and modernization, and the Internet.
He and the CCP Central Committee passed a “historical resolution” in November 2021, the third such resolution after Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. In October 2022, Xi secured a third term as CCP General Secretary, the second leader of the CCP to do so after Mao, and in March 2023 was reelected state president following the abolition of term limits for the presidency and vice presidency.
Xi Jinping Biography
Xi Jinping was born on June 15, 1953 in Beijing, China as the second son of Qi Xin and veteran Chinese Communist Xi Zhongxun. He also had two older sisters named Qiaoqiao and An’an. For his education, Xi went to the Beijing No.
25 School and then to Beijing Bayi School. At the age of 10, his father was purged from the country during Mao’s Cultural Revolution; subsequently, Xi was exiled to rural Yanchuan County, where he lived in the village of Liangjiahe and joined the CCP as a party secretary.
Fed up with rural life, however, Xi ran away to Beijing. Following several rejections, he finally joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1971. Three years later, he was accepted into the Chinese Communist Party.
From 1975 to 1979, Xi studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua University. He would return in 1998 to study Marxism, graduating with a doctorate in law and ideology in 2002.
Xi Jinping Age
Xi was born on June 15, 1953, and is 70 years old as of 2023.
Xi Jinping Net Worth
Jinping’s net worth is not exactly known, with much speculation around his earnings. In his position as General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of China he earns a modest salary of $22,000, however his real net worth is expected to be much higher.
According to Finty, Jinping has an estimated net worth of $1 billion, however, other websites including Celebrity Net Worth play this figure down, putting it at $1 million.
Xi Jinping Wife
Xi Jinping is married to popular folksinger Peng Liyuan .
Xi was married Ke Lingling, the daughter of the former Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom. The pair divorced in 1982. Five years after that, Xi wed famous Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan.
Xi Jinping Children
Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan are parents to a daughter named Xi Mingze.
Xi Jinping Parents
Xi Jinping was born on 15 June 1953, in Beijing, China, to Xi Zhongxun and Qi Xin.
Xi Jinping Siblings
Xi has two elder sisters, Qiaoqiao and An’an.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Xi Jinping’s father?
Xi Jinping is the son of Xi Zhongxun, who once served as deputy prime minister of China. Xi Zhongxun was often out of favor with his party and government, especially before and during the Cultural Revolution and after he openly criticized the government’s actions during the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.
Who is Xi Jinping’s wife?
Xi Jinping married the popular folksinger Peng Liyuan in 1987.
When did Xi Jinping become the president of China?
Xi Jinping became president of the People’s Republic of China in 2013.
When did Xi Jinping begin his second term as president of China?
Xi Jinping was elected to a second term as president of China in March 2018. Also in 2018, the National People’s Congress passed an amendment abolishing term limits for China’s president and vice president. This allowed Xi Jinping to remain in office beyond 2023, when he would have been due to step down.
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