Xi Jinping

Rana Mitter on Xi Jinping's Place in Chinese History and Politics Today

"All of the last 10 years has been about making sure, as you might put it, that it's Xi Jinping's China. It's Xi Jinping's party, everyone else is just living in it."

How Will History Remember Xi?

by Robert Brent Toplin

Despite China's growth as an economic and military force, Xi Jinping's authoritarian government may ultimately be seen as a drag on the nation's prosperity and the flourishing of the Chinese population. 

The Xi Era Demands New Ways of Understanding China

by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

This is the introductory essay to a special issue on contemporary China. 

Michael Schuman: Xi's New China is Terrifying

by Michael Schuman

A leading China scholar argues that the government's increased restrictions on individuals and companies, from the petty to the consequential, signal a retrenchment of central authority after a period of liberalization. 

China Passes Historical Resolution Enabling Xi's Ongoing Rule

“By tracing the continuity of the party over 100 years, it is used to show that it was inevitable for Xi to emerge at this time to be the ‘core’ of the party,” said Tony Saich of Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. 

Xi Understands the Crises Facing China Better than His Propagandists Do

by Walter Russell Mead

Creating a heroic role for Xi in the sweep of Chinese history is an important propaganda aim, but it shows that China faces urgent problems in the here-and-now that the leader may not be able to manage.

To Hold Control in China's Present, Xi Seeks to Rewrite its Past

The Chinese Communist Party's newest official history elevates Xi as a figure of historical significance alongside Mao and Deng Xiaoping, making the country's history an instrument of political power. 

Xi’s China Is Steamrolling Its Own History

by Pamela Kyle Crossley

“Historical nihilism” is nothing more than a denial that the past is fundamentally a resource to be plundered by the present.

China’s Museums Rewrite History to Boost Xi

Renovations in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen add displays that extol Xi, while diluting Deng’s prominence in party lore.

Karl Marx a tool to 'win the future' for China, Xi Jinping says

The Chinese president has praised Karl Marx as the "greatest thinker of modern times" ahead of the bicentennial of the German philosopher. Xi's German counterpart, meanwhile, was far more critical.

Statesman, strongman, philosopher, autocrat: China’s Xi is a man who contains multitudes

by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

He's used his power to crush civil society, but it is not completely fitting to compare him to Putin or Mao. 

Xi’s Family History May Be a Key to His Power Grab

by Tom Clifford

As a teenager during the Cultural Revolution he learned that high status couldn’t protect even his father, a hero of the revolution.

What Xi Jinping's Power Grab Is Really About

by Andrew Meyer

The removal of term limits on the presidency adds empirical weight to the general argument that the PRC system is weakening and losing cohesion.

The chairman of everything: why Chinese president Xi Jinping will change history

by Graham Allison

One of the world’s leading foreign policy experts explores the rise of an all-powerful leader.

Why Xi Jinping’s (Airbrushed) Face Is Plastered All Over China

Not since the days of Mao Zedong has one figure so dominated Chinese life.

2 Sinologists say Liu Xiaobo’s Death speaks to a dark vision for China

by Gina Anne Tam and Jeffrey Wasserstrom

While China’s president has crafted an increasingly progressive image for himself abroad, he's stifling dissent at home.

Here’s what historians told Congress are the difficult issues Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have to work out

by Dane Kennedy

Sponsored by the National History Center, the purpose of the briefing was to give historical context to current tensions between the United States and China, with a particular focus on Chinese aims and anxieties.

Xi Jinping’s Authoritarianism Does a Disservice to China’s Nuanced Political Tradition

by Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Kate Merkel-Hess

Depicting China’s people as inheritors of a single set of values, rather than individuals shaped by and able to draw on many strands of indigenous culture, is wrong.

Five Things About Trump’s Rise That Would Make Xi Jinping Smile

by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Trump’s dystopian oration, was music to the ears of someone hoping, like Xi, to see global admiration for the United States lessen.

Long-time China watcher Geremie R. Barmé says Xi Jinping is "reminiscent of the leader complex of ... older socialist states"

In an interview he says that Xi would like to be thought of as an emperor, but doesn’t show the self-restraint of emperors.