Chinese President Xi Jinping announced his re-election as General Secretary of the Central Committee Communist Party China. For a second term, he was confirmed by a vote held by delegates to XIX Congress Central Committee of the CPC. Thus, the representative of the so-called inner-party group of “princes” (Xi Jinping’s father was one of Mao Zedong’s closest associates) strengthened his position in the country’s political arena.
“I was re-elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. I see this not only as approval of my work, but also as support that will help me in the future,” Xi said during a speech in parliament.
He thanked all party members for their trust in him and promised to work with renewed vigor to “carry out common tasks and achieve common goals.” According to him, in the next five years, China will expand reforms and actively participate in foreign policy.
Popular recognition
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already congratulated Xi Jinping on his re-election. According to him, confirmation for a second term speaks of the political authority of the Chinese leader.
“In congratulations the head Russian state stressed that the voting results fully confirmed the political authority of Xi Jinping, broad support for his course towards accelerated socio-economic development of China and strengthening its international positions. The President of Russia expressed confidence that the decisions of the 19th Congress of the CPC, which “became a truly historical event,” will contribute to strengthening the relations of comprehensive, trusting partnership between the two countries,” says a statement on the Kremlin website.
Putin confirmed his interest in continuing joint work to develop the entire range of Russian-Chinese ties.
Simultaneously with the re-election of Xi Jinping, the names of those who will take seats on the new Politburo Standing Committee became known.
- Xi Jinping and members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee
- Reuters
- Jason Lee
Among them are Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang, Vice Premier of the State Council Wang Yang, head of the Shanghai Party Committee Han Zhang, head of the Office of the CPC Central Committee Li Zhanshu, head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee Zhao Leji and head of the Political Research Center of the CPC Central Committee Wang Huning. It is their voices that will be decisive when making important decisions.
The composition of the Politburo of the Central Committee was also updated. It included 25 people, including only one woman.
Second after Mao
Earlier, delegates to the congress included the name and ideas of the Chairman of the People's Republic of China into the party charter, in particular Xi's vision " new era socialism with Chinese characteristics." Experts note that in this way the Chinese leader was placed on the same level as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. At the same time, Xi is the second leader of the PRC after Mao, whose name was included in the charter during his lifetime. None of the current chairman's predecessors - neither Jiang Zemin nor Hu Jintao - was awarded such an honor.
“Xi Jinping and his legacy since the last congress are so important for China that they are assigned for study by future party members in the same way as (heritage. - RT) Mao Zedong. The main things were told to them: raising the standard of living to the average European level, strategic partnership with Russia through the implementation of the “One Belt - One Road” project as a priority, and economic and political confrontation with the United States,” political scientist Alexander Asafov told RT.
Xi Jinping set a kind of record for the length of his speech at the opening of the Party Congress - it lasted three and a half hours and was dedicated to the results of the work of the CPC Central Committee over five years. In particular, the Secretary General highlighted the successes economic development countries and achievements in reforms. In addition, he outlined the issues on which the government will have to concentrate. Among them are the modernization of the army, party discipline, combating corruption, eradicating poverty, solving social problems, strengthening positions in foreign policy and combating international threats and challenges.
It is noteworthy that this time not a single politician under 60 years of age was elected to the Politburo Standing Committee. According to unspoken tradition, this suggests that Xi has no potential successor to replace him in 2022 at the 20th CPC Congress. This means that Xi Jinping may well run for a third term, experts emphasize.
- Images of Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong on plates
- Reuters
- Tyrone Siu
Face of China
By its decision to re-elect Xi, the CPC demonstrated full agreement with the political course that he is pursuing. Political scientist Alexander Asafov stated this.
“The 19th Congress of the Communist Party is quite a major event for Chinese politics. Much was expected of him. Therefore, the re-election of the Secretary General suggests that Xi Jinping justified the party’s trust and, despite the existence of internal criticism, his course was recognized as most consistent with the current interests of China and the challenges facing the country,” he said.
As confirmed to RT by the head of the sector of economics and politics of China at the National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations. EAT. Primakov RAS Sergei Lukonin, in this regard, the policy promoted by Xi Jinping will be continued in the future.
“All the trends that existed in Xi Jinping’s first term will develop and continue in the future. In particular, the “One Belt, One Road” initiative and the development and modernization of the economy will be promoted,” the expert concluded.
Deputies of the National People's Congress (NPC), the highest legislative body, approved the abolition of restrictions on holding the position of chairman of the PRC. Before today these posts could not be held for more than two consecutive terms. Now Secretary General Xi Jinping will be able to remain in office beyond 2023, when his second term comes to an end. Life recalls details from the biography of the current Chinese leader.
Most Russians know only two things about today's China: a lot of people live there and, it seems, they are still building communism, but with a capitalist face. Few will remember the name of the Chinese president, on whose position, meanwhile, today depends global politics, and the world economy.
However, the Chinese themselves know little about their leader.
“Silent Xi” - that’s what they called him five years ago, when Xi Jinping first took the helm of China. They also said that it is almost impossible to piss off the Chinese Secretary General - no matter what happens, an impenetrable polite smile will always play on his face, embodying all the condescension of the mighty thousand-year-old China towards the outside world.
Victim of the Great Leap Forward
Xi Jinping was born on June 1, 1953 in Beijing in the family of a prominent party leader, Xi Zhongxun, one of the prominent leaders of the Chinese Red Army. In the 30s, Xi Sr. (in China, the first part of the name is the family surname, the second is the name of the person himself) was engaged in the creation of a partisan underground in Shanxi province, then fought with the Japanese and became famous as the commander-in-chief of all the northwestern provinces of China.
After the war, Xi Zhongxun, whom Mao himself called “a leader of the people,” became head of the propaganda department of the Party Central Committee. The peak of his career came in 1959, when at the Eighth Party Congress he was elected to the Politburo and appointed deputy chairman State Council The PRC - that is, became the second person in the country after the Great Helmsman Mao himself.
However, Xi Zhongxun's party career was ruined by his passion for literature. Back in the early 50s, he wrote a book about a friend of his youth - the Red commander Liu Zhidan, who went down in the history of the country as the “Chinese Budyonny”. And everything would be fine, but one of the closest associates of the “red hero Liu” he named a certain Gao Gang, the former chairman of the State Planning Committee of the People's Republic of China, who - exactly two years after the publication of the ill-fated book - was declared an enemy of the people. Xi Zhongxun’s book was remembered only in 1962, when the time came for the “great purge” in the Chinese party.
However, there was another - less publicized - reason for Xi's fall. In the late 50s, Mao announced the beginning of a new Great Leap Forward strategy, calling on the Chinese to build communism at an accelerated pace: “Three years of hard work - ten thousand years of happiness!”
From the outside, this experiment resembled mass insanity: in the countryside, all peasants were forced into agricultural communes, socializing all property - from houses and livestock to personal clothing and shoes. In some places, wives were also socialized. Communes created in cities were required to produce industrial products: throughout China, hundreds of thousands of primitive blast furnaces were built in the courtyards of houses for artisanal smelting of cast iron - of course, of poor quality. As a result, the Great Leap Forward turned into an unprecedented economic catastrophe: peasants rushed to flee barracks life, a famine began in the country, which, according to some estimates, claimed the lives of 45 million people over several years.
Of course, someone had to answer for the failure of the Great Leap Forward, and Mao announced a purge of the party, when tens of thousands of party leaders were declared enemies of the people. Xi Zhongxun was among them.
Son of an enemy of the people
But Xi Zhongxun was lucky - unlike hundreds of thousands of repressed enemies of the people, he was not shot or rotted in the Laojiao camps (the Chinese equivalent of the Gulag), where political prisoners are “re-educated through labor.” No, Xi Zhongxun was lucky - he was simply removed from all posts and sent into honorable exile - the director of a tractor plant under construction in the city of Luoyang in the neighboring province of Henan.
He ended up in the “Laojiao” camp in 1967, when the Cultural Revolution began in China - a campaign to destroy Mao’s political competitors under the pretext of “the fight against internal and external revisionism.” Young “rebels” began to fight the enemies - Red Guards, yesterday’s schoolchildren and students from disadvantaged families, who, intoxicated with impunity, smashed the “revisionists”, who often became their teachers, local officials, and representatives of the clergy. The management of the plant in Luoyang also got it - Xi was beaten half to death and, dressed in jester's clothes, forced to read the “word of repentance” in the square under the threat of gallows, after which they were sent to the quarries for re-education.
Young Xi Jinping, then 13 years old, escaped the camps only by a miracle. Together with their mother Qi Xin, sister Qiaoqiao and younger brother Yuanping, they fled from the city to their home province of Shanxi. In the village they fell into the hands of local Red Guards.
As the son of a seasoned “counter-revolutionary,” Xi Jinping was sentenced to the most shameful and dirty work - he and his brother had to look after the pigs of the agricultural commune and live in a pigsty.
Many years later, Xi Jinping himself recalled in an interview with a Chinese magazine:
What do I remember from my youth? Just a constant feeling of hunger and cold. I also remember the daily hard work, the beatings of the guards and the constant loneliness. For almost seven years my home was a dirty pig barn. I slept on a bed made of bricks, covered with an old blanket that was infested with fleas. I drank from the same bucket with the pigs...
From rags to party princes
Everything changed in 1976, when, after the death of Mao Zedong, the reformer Deng Xiaoping came to power, who himself suffered from the terror of the Red Guards (the “rebels” grabbed his son and, after much torture, threw him out of a third-floor window, after which the young man became disabled).
Xi Jr. immediately sensed a change in political direction. And although his father was still an enemy of the people and a prisoner of labor camps, he was allowed to leave the pigsty. Moreover, as part of the campaign to rehabilitate victims political repression Xi Jr. was even accepted into the Communist Party and appointed to the post of secretary of the party organization in his “native” pig-breeding brigade. However, Xi Jr. tried not to linger on the collective farm and at the first opportunity he left for Beijing, where he entered the Faculty of Chemical Technology of Tsinghua University.
In 1978, Xi Sr. was also rehabilitated. First, he was returned to the plant in Luoyang, then Xi Zhongxun, with the patronage of Xiaoping, became the governor of Guangdong Province - this is in the very south of the country, actually on the border with Hong Kong. It was the coastal province of Guangdong that became the main experimental site for the future Chinese economic miracle.
In the 1980s, Zhongxun, elected to the secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, became one of the pioneers of the policy of economic liberalization. Xi Sr. was also responsible for bringing to life the main brainchild of the architect of Chinese reforms - he oversaw the construction of the city of Shenzhen - the capital of the “special economic zone”, a kind of “incubator” for the first Chinese market capitalists.
"Daddy's boy" went to the people
Under his father's wing, Xi Jr. seemed to have a guaranteed and easy path to success. Having received a diploma as a chemical engineer, he began to make a career along the party line, then, under the patronage of his father, he became the secretary of the then Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Geng Biao. The place is, as they say, warm, especially since Geng Biao at that time was also a member of the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China.
Father arranged and family life Xi Jr., marrying him to Ke Xiaoming - daughter Chinese Ambassador In Great Britain. As a wedding gift, the parents gave the newlyweds a luxury apartment in the prestigious Nanshagou district in western Beijing, where the embassies of all Western countries are located.
However, the marriage of convenience turned out to be sheer torture for Xi Jr. As American diplomats who lived in neighboring apartments recalled, the newlyweds quarreled almost every day. The educated and elegant beauty Ke was openly burdened by life in Beijing, where literally every step was under the control of party bodies and special services. She urged her husband to leave everything and go to live in the West, but he always refused, realizing how his escape would affect the position of his father and the entire family.
Ultimately, in 1982, the marriage broke up. Ke left the country and moved to England, while Jinping remained in China. Or rather, he not only stayed, but resigned from all his posts and asked to be sent to work somewhere in the provinces.
Perhaps he simply realized that the career of a “daddy’s boy” did not in any way correspond to his ambitions. However, in order to reach the top in the power system of the Celestial Empire, it is not enough to have connections and support from a related clan; for this you need your own political capital.
And Xi Jr. went to the city of Zhengding, the capital of the county of the same name in Hebei province in northern China near the coast of the Yellow Sea.
Surge after Tiananmen
student revolution", and in China itself - an attempt by the new Secretary General of the CPC Central Committee, Zhao Ziyang, a liberal and Westerner, to organize a party purge of the old party nomenklatura clans. The attempt failed - the generals intervened in politics, as a result the student "Maidan" in the center of Beijing was dispersed, and Zhao Ziyang himself was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.
Following this, a series of arrests took place in the provinces of the country.
As a result, Xi Jinping's career took a vertical leap - in 1989 he became both the party leader of Fujian province and the first secretary of the district party organization of the People's Liberation Army of China. In the Chinese vertical of power, it is these regional leaders who are personnel reserve for the highest echelons of power. It seemed that young Xi was about to return in triumph to Beijing, but in the 90s he career seemed to have stagnated at the level of provincial leader. Perhaps the whole point was that the new Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who came to power in 1993, preferred to place his people everywhere - mainly people from Shanghai, where Jiang Zemin was the mayor.
Only in 2002, when Hu Jintao became the new Secretary General of China - by the way, a graduate of Tsinghua University, from which Xi Jr. also graduated, did Beijing remember his candidacy. And soon Xi received a new appointment as governor of Zhejiang, one of the richest provinces in the country.
At the same time, Xi Jinping has succeeded in building family happiness. Back in the early 90s, he married for the second time - to singer Peng Liyuan, the “golden voice of the Chinese army,” who is known throughout the country as a performer of folk songs and songs from the military repertoire. The news of Peng Liyuan's wedding had the effect of a bomb exploding - no one could understand what she found in this “silent Xi”?!
And only very recently, Peng admitted in an interview that she was captivated by Jinping’s steely character, his gentleness and courtesy with women, and his equanimity - it seems that there is nothing in the world that could bring Xi out of a state of eternal peace.
But his indifference is a mask, - said Peng Liyuan, - in fact, no one knows how passionate and emotional a person he is.
In 1992, the newlyweds had a daughter, Xi Mingze. Today very little is known about the daughter of the Chinese leader. She now lives in Beijing, having returned from the United States - for several years she studied under a pseudonym at Harvard, where she studied law, art history and English literature.
It was in Shanghai
cultural" or any other revolutions. Or rather, surprises happen, but not at the time when impatient Europeans are waiting for them. For example, in 2002, Hu Jintao became the new Chinese leader, who - according to the country's Constitution - should rule for no more than 10 years, that is, until 2012. But the candidacy of Hu Jintao’s successor began to be discussed in Beijing in 2007 - on the eve of the next party congress. The logic here is simple: it is at the party congress that the leader of the state begins to nominate successors and gradually introduce them into a narrow circle of the country's top leadership.
Actually, the main successor at that time was considered to be a certain Chen Liangyu - a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and the head of the Shanghai Regional Committee of the CPC, a man from the powerful "Shanghai Clique" of former Secretary General Jiang Zemin, who later became the Chairman of the PRC. Moreover, Chen Liangyu himself was so confident in the strength of the “clique” that several times he allowed himself to publicly argue with Hu Jintao at Politburo meetings.
But the Politburo did not forgive such insolent people.
In 2006, Chen Langyu was suddenly arrested by agents of the Chinese Ministry of State Security on charges of misuse and theft of approximately $400 million from the local Pension Fund. “Silent Xi,” appointed to the post of mayor of Shanghai, was assigned to investigate the case. As a result, Chen Liangyu received 18 years in prison, and with him, several dozen officials from the “clique” were arrested in the case of stealing money from pensioners.
And in 2007, the country learned the name of Hu Jintao's likely successor. True, the list of contenders for the throne was not limited to the name of Xi Jinping. There were other successors. The main competitor is Li Keqiang, former secretary of the CPC Committee of Liaoning Province and leader of the so-called. Komsomol group - officials who began to make a career in governing bodies Communist Youth League of China. Another contender is Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Shanghai Clique who rose to the post of Minister of Public Security of the People's Republic of China.
But everything was decided by the 2008 Olympics in Beijing - its holding was supervised by Xi Jinping, who was elected Deputy Chairman of the People's Republic of China. After the sporting triumph of the Chinese team, no one was left with any doubt about who exactly would lead China into the future.
Fifth generation versus fourth
From the outside, Chinese politics resembles Chinese traditional theater - "jingxi", when something is clearly happening on stage, but what exactly is completely unclear. At least for uninitiated viewers. Initiated people are in no hurry to explain the meaning of what is happening, because it is absolutely impossible to explain to the European barbarians - "laowai" - that in the Chinese theater the very action of the play has almost no meaning, that the art of "jingxi" is built on canonized and refined conventional techniques of expressiveness, on stylized movements and gestures appropriate for each character in the play, expressing a certain role.
Exactly the same laws apply to Chinese politics - all the main action takes place outside of public space, in the quiet of corridors and offices. In public, Chinese functionaries only regularly perform ritual gestures. But sometimes the laws of the Jingxi theater are broken, and then the audience becomes visible to all the behind-the-scenes mechanisms and squabbles of the Beijing Olympus.
Something similar happened with Xi Jinping in September 2012 on the eve of the 18th National Congress of the CPC - it was at this congress that Xi and the “fifth generation” of Chinese managers came to power.
On the eve of the congress, Xi Jinping disappeared from public politics for several weeks. Moreover, he canceled a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Singaporean Prime Minister, and Russian ministers. However, as the American Washington Post reported, citing Hong Kong sources, in fact, Xi was severely beaten during a meeting with representatives of Zhou Yongkang’s “army group”. Allegedly, during the meeting, the conversation in a raised voice turned into a real fight, and the enraged generals almost hit the head of the Deputy Chairman of the People's Republic of China with broken chairs.
Therefore, according to American journalists, Xi Jinping was forced to lie down at home for several weeks, waiting for the bruises to go away.
Well, Xi Jinping took brutal revenge on the offenders. Less than six months after the congress, Zhou Yongkang was arrested on charges of a whole bunch of corruption crimes.
The topic of fighting corruption in general became the main leitmotif of Xi’s first term, who, having entered into an alliance with Li Keqiang (Li is now the head of the PRC government), began to persecute appointees of the former elites with a strong hand. However, ordinary Chinese only welcomed how waves of purges, one after another, covered the military and party elite, mired in theft.
The scope of the anti-corruption campaign is astonishing: in four years - from 2013 to 2017 - the special services “cleaned out” more than 1.35 million officials and party leaders. Of course, two-thirds of those convicted got away with dismissal or expulsion from the party, but several hundred thousand officials - mainly from the upper levels of power - were sentenced to life imprisonment and death by firing squad.
Among the convicted "heavyweights" were the deputy head of the Central Military Council, Guo Boxiong, and the deputy chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xu Caihou, and the former chief assistant to Secretary General Hu Jintao, Ling Jihua, and the former Minister of Commerce, Bo Xilai - another " crown prince", who created a business empire that covered the whole of China. By the way, they say that Xi Jinping had personal scores with Bo Xilai - during the Cultural Revolution, Bo was the commander of one of the capital's Red Guard detachments, which hunted people of the older generation. They say that Bo Xilai did not even spare his own father, breaking all his ribs during interrogation. Along with Bo Xilai, his wife Gu Kailai was arrested, who was accused of murdering British businessman Neil Haywood, who helped move billions of Chinese officials to offshore accounts. As a result, Gu Kailai was sentenced to death, and Bo Xilai to life imprisonment.
An interesting detail: the defeat of Zhou Yongkang’s “Shanghai group” caused a lot of concern in Russia. It was Zhou Yongkang, who oversaw the work of Chinese oil and gas companies on behalf of the government, who was the main initiator of the construction of the Russian Power of Siberia gas pipeline going to China.
But Xi Jinping was then considered a real pro-Western politician - as a representative of the industrialized South-East of the country, he advocated the development of geothermal “green” energy and the development of the liquefied gas market, which was supplied to China by Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia.
However, very soon Xi Jinping proved that it was not for nothing that in Fujian province he was called the most flexible politician - he restored relations with Gazprom, and showed himself to be Russia’s best ally, and put forward the “One Belt and One Road” initiative, making Russia one of them China's main economic allies on the path to building the Economic Belt Silk Road" and "Maritime Silk Road of the XXI century".
For the third term
About personality possible successor Xi Jinping has been debated for a long time, but the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party, held in October 2017, did not bring any clarity on this matter. If Xi Jinping had any thoughts about worthy representatives of the “sixth generation” of Chinese officials, he preferred to keep them to himself - none of the young provincial governors or Xi’s nominees received a “landmark” invitation to enter the highest echelons of power at the congress. Moreover, some of the “sixth generation”, who were tagged as “heirs”, became involved in new “corruption” investigations. For example, Sun Zhengcai was considered the most likely contender for the post of General Secretary, former head Chongqing City Committee, who was removed from all posts on the eve of the congress and placed in Qincheng Prison - an elite detention center in the center of Beijing, opened specifically for high-ranking officials and party leaders.
The current members of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and even Xi’s deputies on the State Council and the Military Council are also not suitable as successors - in 2022, when Xi will have to resign, as required by the Constitution of the PRC, almost the entire Chinese Areopagus will reach 70 years of retirement age, after which will block their path to power.
But Xi himself will be only 69 years old in 2022 - by Chinese standards, his prime age. For example, it is appropriate to remember that Deng Xiaoping himself became the leader of China at the age of 73 - after many years of living under arrest. And Mao Zedong, at the age of 70, had not yet even gotten a taste for ruling the country.
So it is no coincidence that in China they not only started talking about a possible change to the country’s Constitution so that Xi Jinping could remain for a third term, but also already approved this draft amendment.
Deputies at a session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the highest legislative body, approved the abolition of restrictions on holding the positions of the chairman of the PRC and his deputy.
This decision allows Xi Jinping to be re-elected to office after 2023, when his second term comes to an end.
Xi Jinping (习近平) - Chairman of the People's Republic of China, Secretary General CPC Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Military Council of the CPC Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China, member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, as well as the head of the Central Party School. Leader of China.
Xi Jinping held various positions in the provincial governments of Fujian and Zhejiang early in his career. He is known for his tough stance against corruption and his openness to political and economic reforms. This, as well as the fact that he is a compromise figure for various groups within the Chinese Communist Party, predetermines his influence in the party and state.
Biography
Xi Jinping was born on June 1, 1953 in Beijing, but according to Chinese tradition is considered to be a native of Fuping County, Shaanxi Province, where his father is from. Xi Jinping is the second son of Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002), who was a representative of the first generation of leaders of the PRC, Secretary General State Council of the People's Republic of China and head of the propaganda department of the Communist Party of China. When Xi was 10 years old, his father was relieved of his posts and sent to re-education through labor in a factory in Luoyang. In 1968, Xi Zhongxun was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. In 1969, after Mao Zedong proclaimed the slogan "down to the villages", Xi Jinping went to work in Yanchuan County, Yan'an County, Shaanxi Province.
From 1975 to 1979, Xi Jinping studied at Beijing Tsinghua University, majoring in chemical engineering.
Beginning of a political career
Xi Jinping In 1971, Xi Jinping joined the Communist Youth League, and in 1974, the Communist Party of China. Until 1975 he was secretary of the party organization of the working brigade. After graduating from university in 1979 and until 1982, he worked as a secretary for his father's former subordinate, Geng Biao, in the Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China and the Office of the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China. Since 1982 - Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Zhengding County, Hebei Province, and since 1983 - Secretary of the CPC County Committee. As part of the Chinese delegation, he traveled to the North American state of Iowa to study agriculture.
In 1985, Xi Jinping was transferred to Fujian Province, where he took the post of vice mayor of the Xiamen urban district. Since 1988 - Secretary of the CPC Committee of Ningde District. In 1990-1996 - Secretary of the CPC Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the center of Fujian Province, the city of Fuzhou. And since 1995, he has also been a member of the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the CPC. In 1995 - 2002 - Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Fujian Province, from 1999 - Acting Governor of Fujian Province, and in 2000 - 2002 - Governor. Xi Jinping has actively attracted investment from neighboring Taiwan and promoted the development of a market economy. In 1998 - 2002, he completed postgraduate studies in absentia at Tsinghua University, specializing in Marxist theory and ideological and political education, and received a Doctor of Laws degree.
Xi Jinping In February 2000, Xi Jinping and Fujian Provincial Committee Secretary Chen Mingyi were summoned to Beijing to explain the Yuanhua scandal. Yuanhua is the name of a group of companies founded by Lai Changxing in 1994. The group was involved in smuggling imported cars, cigarettes and oil. The goods were imported through the special economic zone of Xiamen in Fujian province. Lai Changxing bribed many officials in the city administration, customs, police, Communist Party and even the army. Lai had extensive connections in the province, was a member of the provincial consultative conference, and an honorary citizen of Xiamen. Lai's investment was used to build the Xiamen Airport, the 88-story Yuanhua Tower, and a 7-story brothel serving high-ranking officials. In 1998, he bought the Foshan football team for 2 million yuan, immediately disbanded it, and transferred all the players to the newly created Xiamen Lanshi team. On April 20, 1999, a government surveillance operation began on Lai Changxing, and in August of the same year, he emigrated to Canada with his family. Damage to the state is estimated at $3.6 billion. In one of China's biggest corruption scandals, more than 300 provincial officials were put on trial, many were removed from their posts, more than 100 received prison terms and 14 were sentenced to death. Lai Changxing himself was extradited to China in 2011.
In 2002, Xi Jinping was transferred to Zhejiang Province, where he served as Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee (2002), Secretary of the CPC Committee (2002 - 2007), Acting Governor (2002 - 2003) and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress ( 2003 - 2007). While working in Zhejiang province, he took a tough stance against corrupt officials.
Central government
In 2006, the Shanghai pension scandal broke out. Secretary of the Shanghai CCP Committee Chen Lanyu was accused of misuse of money pension fund, which were spent on infrastructure projects, was removed from office, and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Xi Jinping was appointed to the important post of Secretary of the Shanghai CPC Committee, who was thus given enormous confidence. As secretary of the city committee, Xi pursued a cautious policy, avoided controversial issues and toed the line of the central government.
Xi Jinping during the Beijing Olympics In October 2007, at the 17th Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping was appointed one of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee. And on March 15, 2008, at the congress of the 11th National People's Congress of China, he was elected deputy chairman of the People's Republic of China.
Xi Jinping was entrusted with several directions. He was put in charge of comprehensive preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, supervised the affairs of Hong Kong and Macau, and was also appointed head of the Central Party School. As Deputy Chairman of the People's Republic of China, he made several trips abroad.
Political future
Xi Jinping has been included in the top 100 most influential people in the world according to Time magazine since 2009, and the British magazine New Statesman placed him in fourth place. In October 2010, Xi Jinping was appointed vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, thus becoming Hu Jintao's deputy in all posts.
Transfer of power
Following the results of the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the 18th CPC Central Committee appointed Xi Jingping General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Council of the CPC Central Committee on November 14, 2012, and also included him in the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the 18th CPC Central Committee convocation
On March 14, 2013, at the 4th plenary session of the 1st session of the 12th convocation of the National People's Congress of China (NPC), Xi Jinping was appointed Chairman of the PRC, and on March 15 also to the post of Chairman of the Central Military Council of the PRC.
Character
Xi Jinping is sociable, hardworking, diligent, extremely ambitious and purposeful. He is a realist and pragmatist. Xi practices martial arts and Qigong and is interested in Buddhism.
Personal life
According to the established practice in the PRC, the personal lives of the country’s top leaders are not usually brought to the attention of the public.
In the 1980s, Xi Jinping married Ke Lingling, the daughter of the Chinese ambassador to Britain, but they divorced after three years of marriage due to personal differences. On September 1, 1987, Xi Jinping married for the second time, to singer Peng Liyuan. At the time of the wedding, Peng Liyuan was much more popular than her husband. She performs songs mainly from the military repertoire, joined the ranks of the PLA at the age of 18, and has the rank of major general. She received a master's degree in Chinese traditional ethnic music and regularly performs at New Year's concerts on television. Due to Peng's active concert activities, the couple often live separately.
Xi Jinping has a daughter, Xi Mingjie, born in 1992. In 2010, she enrolled as a freshman at Harvard University under a pseudonym.
On the day when Supreme Court finally rejected Ksenia Sobchak's complaint about Vladimir Putin's registration as a presidential candidate, the third plenum of the 19th convocation of the CPC Central Committee opened in Beijing. And on Sunday, amendments to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China proposed by the Central Committee were officially announced. The Central Committee proposes, in particular, to include in the Basic Law the ideas of the current Chairman of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping on socialism with Chinese characteristics, to insert there a phrase emphasizing the leading role of the CPC, and to remove from the Constitution of the country the phrase that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the People's Republic of China "may hold office no more than two terms in a row."
Head of the Center for Oriental Studies High school economics in Moscow, a sinologist notes that talk about abolishing the provision on a maximum of two terms for the Chairman of the People's Republic of China has been going on for a long time, this idea was “thrown in” through the press:
– The first leak, apparently, was made by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, which is well informed and is in such a positional game with the PRC, which often publishes hard-hitting articles about the situation in China, although it never engages in direct, sweeping criticism of Beijing and does not take anti-Chinese positions . Let me remind you, almost all last year many articles in the Western press, not just the Chinese, and even articles in such a respected publication as the Economist, were filled with hints and discussions: what will happen if, after all, China moves to almost permanent leadership? Will this be good or bad? In fact, the world’s reaction to what could happen to China and to world public opinion was being tested and, perhaps, is still being tested, to what extent the Chinese dissident circles in the West, of which there are quite a lot in both the USA and Great Britain, will raise their heads. How will the world and its closest neighbors, for example, Russia, react to this proposal? In principle, oddly enough, it doesn’t matter how true it is. The important thing is that yesterday and today the whole world is discussing this statement.
– For you, as a China specialist, how realistic is it that this initiative will be implemented? More recently, at the congress of the Communist Party, ideas were introduced into its charter for the first time since the time of Deng Xiaoping specific person- Xi Jinping. It seems that he is taking leaps and bounds towards becoming a truly authoritarian leader. Do you agree?
- In general, yes. Because if we rewind a little, in both 2016 and 2017, a cult of personality and the sole power of Xi Jinping was actively created. For example, Xi Jinping was called the "core" national ideology. This is a designation of a leader who is already above his formal responsibilities as chairman of the CPC Central Committee. At the 19th CPC Congress, which took place in 2017, no successor was named. Although theoretically, at least two young successors should have been identified during this period. And one of them, again theoretically, could be nominated for the next term as Secretary General of the CPC Central Committee. Accordingly, since in China one person combines both posts - Chairman of the People's Republic of China and Secretary General of the Central Committee - then today we should know the names of several successors. But there are none. And finally, the personality cult of Xi Jinping has intensified recently ( we're talking about about his portraits, about quotes, which has not happened for almost 35 years). All this suggests that there is indeed a tendency to strengthen the authoritarian regime under Xi Jinping.
The fear of transferring power suggests that Xi Jinping simply does not trust a large number his comrades
“But this system, in which the leader holds office for no more than two consecutive terms, at least worked for thirty years.” extra years. When Xi Jinping came to power, he was talked about as the person who would most likely preserve this system. After all, he experienced horrors cultural revolution, he is from the family of one of the repressed leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. Why do you think things are happening while Xi Jinping is in power?
– Firstly, the nature of power has changed in China, it just changed imperceptibly. The fact is that the enormous successes that have occurred over the past 30 years have given rise to a number of opposing trends. First of all, this is the growing influence of local elites who have become rich. And they are bound by party circles that want to play their own games, and they have their own views on the future, the future of their families. At the level of provincial or even district leaders, administrations, city committees, regional committees, these are people whose many children study abroad. They are already integrated into the global economy, opening firms and enterprises around the world. And, in general, thereby losing primary loyalty to the state, that is, the impetus for the growth and development of China is lost. In fact, this is what Xi Jinping noticed. And the fight against corruption in the last 5 years is, in fact, a fight not against theft or the cutting of the state budget. This is a fight against these elites, who have essentially ceased to understand their tasks before the state. And this is what, in fact, Xi Jinping is trying to correct. Why does he do this? Because there are problems within the Chinese economy, again generated by growth: this is the gap between the poor and the rich, the unprofitability of Chinese enterprises, the huge debts of enterprises to the budget, the uneven development of regions. Rich south, very poor northwestern regions, and so on. There are plenty of such imbalances. And it is no longer possible to solve them only by internal means, because the old drivers of growth, for example, the export economy, cheap labor, have already disappeared. As a consequence, you need to go outside.
Actually, this is what is taking shape in Chinese politics, in the slogan put forward by Xi Jinping: “One Belt, One Road.” This is, in essence, the export of Chinese capital, their investment in infrastructure projects, in the energy sector, so that capital works abroad, and China itself gradually takes control of the largest shipments, transport routes and the economies of a number of countries. Then China acquires some international stability. And this allows him to position himself in a completely different way. In essence, this is re-globalization according to the Chinese model. If earlier it came from the West, now it will come from China. But one term is not enough for this. This can be done in 10 years. It is impossible to correct the situation in China in the next 5 years, that is, the years that Xi Jinping has left. Thus, if we are talking now about real possibility extension of his powers, then we are talking about the fact that he is extending the opportunity for reforms. At the same time, oddly enough, this also speaks of the weakness of the current wing, which is headed by Xi Jinping. Because the fear of transferring power, the fear that all reforms will suddenly be completed, suggests that Xi Jinping simply does not trust quite a large number of his associates, says Alexey Maslov.
“On Thursday, V.V. Putin will come out to the world with a program for a new six-year term (message Federal Assembly). The day before, the Chinese, with their historic amendment to the Constitution, completely removed the “problem of 2024” for Putin. This is how the next interlocutor of Radio Liberty, a political scientist, responded to the proposals of the CPC Central Committee.
Putin gets the opportunity to say: look, large nations entering the historical arena are not at all guided by the norms of succession of power
– This decision is important for Russia and, of course, for all of Eurasia. This is a global event, for sure. If we look, relatively speaking, from the perspective of Samuel Huntington's famous 1991 article on the “waves of democratization,” and this text is based on the simple observation that the waves of the spread of the liberal democratic regime of government go in waves. And Huntington said there that there was a first wave, then a wave that restored liberal democracy in Europe after the war, and this same wave was also a wave of anti-colonialism, which led to the spread of democratic ideals in former colonial countries. And then there was the third wave of the so-called “velvet” revolutions - the fall of the Eastern Bloc. And then the question arose: will there be some next wave? This is a fair question, because the world is changing, the global world is changing. Big big new players - China has changed over the last 25 years, and so has the Middle East and all of Asia. And during this same period, during these same 25 years, post-Soviet countries and regimes made historical choices for themselves.
The Eurasian world has become a completely special type of government
And in this context, the decision of the Chinese leadership now clearly indicates that such a significant historical choice has been made, which emphasizes that essential element The liberal democratic concept of government, namely the turnover of power, from China’s point of view, is no longer an ideological priority. This calls into question a very large tradition in general. Vladimir Putin has already joined Alexander Lukashenko in his concept of power, and Nazarbayev before. Therefore, it is no coincidence that we now often say that if the glass of democracy in Russia was half empty or half full, and 10 years ago it might have seemed to an outside observer that Russia was able to maintain the framework of liberal democratic development, but now it is not. Now, of course, the Eurasian world has become a completely special type of government. China clearly joins it.
– I don’t think that the Chinese prepared their Central Committee Plenum for the Russian presidential elections and, especially, for the day when the Supreme Court of Russia rejected the appeal of Ksenia Sobchak, who complained about the registration of Vladimir Putin as a presidential candidate in these elections. Do you think Putin will openly mention this step of the Chinese authorities (although it has not yet been formally completed) when he talks about politics in some of his, perhaps, upcoming speeches?
- He can joke about it. I don't think he will seriously appeal to this experience. In general, he doesn’t need this. But this, of course, is a ball in his basket. He receives absolutely obvious support and the opportunity to say: look, large, huge nations, developing nations, entering the historical arena, are not at all guided by the norms of succession of power. This will, of course, help him, but to say that he will play with it somehow, I would say no. Because, in my opinion, Putin retains the opportunity in 2024 to try again the model of transfer of power, in which he will retain his key position in the system, transferring the presidency to someone else.
– If China does things the way they do, maybe in 2024 they will be able to say: “Well, look, since such a great power as China does not limit the terms of government for its leaders, then I can take advantage of this”?
– Yes, of course, especially since it is obvious that the existing authorities, the political elite of Russia will overwhelmingly support any proposal and are ready to always put forward this proposal that Putin remain the leader of the country until the end of his life. In this sense of the word, there are some options that everyone is discussing. There are many such discussions that a State Council can be created, and then it will be the chairman of the State Council, or a constitutional decision can be made that removes restrictions on powers. There are many possibilities here. And indeed, it must be said that society will accept this completely without complaint.
– Let's return to generalizations. We talked about countries such as Russia, China, Kazakhstan, large, influential countries, of course, we are also talking about Belarus. You said that Putin accepted Alexander Lukashenko’s concept of power. Could all this, the path that all the countries mentioned have taken, been avoided?
- Of course! History is not so determined that it simply runs on rails, like a trolley. There are historical forks. And, of course, Russia had such a fork in the road in 2008–2011. Probably, if a significant part of the economic, political and military elite had chosen in favor of further changes in power, rallying at that moment around Medvedev or, conversely, someone else, preventing Vladimir Putin from castling and returning to the Kremlin, then, of course, , history would have taken a slightly different route. But now you can’t go back to that. The fork has been passed. Now, unfortunately, we must drink the cup to the bottom, - Alexander Morozov believes.
“The Central Committee of the CPC proposed to include patriots who dedicated themselves to the great revival of the Chinese nation into the ranks of the united patriotic front. Such amendments were proposed to be made to the Constitution of China. According to these proposals, over the long years of revolution, construction and reform under the leadership of the CPC, a broad united patriotic front was formed, consisting from democratic parties and people's organizations and includes all socialist workers, all builders of socialism, all patriots supporting socialism, as well as all patriots advocating the reunification of the motherland and dedicating themselves to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The CPC Central Committee proposed to include “harmonious socialist relations between nationalities” in the Constitution. It is proposed to change the phrase “Socialist relations of equality, unity and mutual assistance between nationalities have been established and will continue to be strengthened” to “Socialist relations of equality, unity, mutual assistance and harmony between nationalities have been established and will continue to be strengthened.”
The CPC Central Committee proposed to include “work to build a community with a common destiny for mankind” in the Constitution.
The Central Committee of the CPC proposed to include the mechanism for taking the oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the country into the basic law. It is proposed to include in the Constitution an article stating that all civil servants must publicly swear allegiance to the Constitution before taking office.
The CPC Central Committee proposed to include the Supervision Commission in the Constitution as a state body."
Outside of China, the name Peng Liyuan is known to few people. If she is mentioned in the press, it is mainly only as the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, for the Chinese themselves, Peng Liyuan means about the same as Alla Pugacheva for the Russians. And even more - after all, she is not just a super-popular singer, but also a trendsetter, and even almost an army general.
For the second year in a row, the wife of the President of the People's Republic of China is included in Forbes magazine's annual ranking of "The Most influential women peace." The next list of 100 names was published at the end of May. In it, Peng Liyuan found herself in the company of Angela Merkel, Michelle Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, Lady Gaga and other celebrities.
Dream come true
It seems that official Chinese propaganda views Peng Liyuan's appearance on the pages of Forbes not as part of a global trend of strengthening women's leadership, but as a purely Chinese phenomenon, one of the examples of the “great national revival.” If Peng Liyuan is ranked modestly 57th in the Forbes ranking, then in her homeland she occupies a leading position “in the women’s standings.” It is no coincidence that Chinese Internet users often call Peng Liyuan “gomu,” which can be translated as “mother of the nation.”
None of the wives of the last leaders of the PRC - Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao - were awarded such a “title”. The spouses of Xi Jinping's predecessors spent most of their time in the shadows. Few people were interested in their views or biographical details. They never gave interviews, and the modest and inexpressive outfits in which the “first ladies” appeared during rare appearances never aroused admiration among fashionistas.
Peng Liyuan, on the contrary, became a clear embodiment of the “Chinese dream”. Dreams of a strong power that declares itself brightly, on a large scale and in a modern way, but at the same time remembers its past greatness, does not lose its roots, and does not copy foreign models.
Even the creation of the family of Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan was in accordance with Chinese traditions, which prescribe choosing life partners on the instructions of parents and on the recommendations of relatives, friends, colleagues and acquaintances. The “blind date” between Comrade Xi and the future first lady was organized by friends.
For Xi, this was the second alliance. There is little information about his first family; it is not even clear how long this marriage lasted - either two or three years. Xi Jinping's first wife was a daughter former ambassador China in the UK. They say that the reason for the divorce was the young wife’s desire to go to study in the West, while Xi preferred to build a career in his homeland. At the time of his meeting with Peng Liyuan, who was almost ten years his junior, divorced Xi Jinping was vice mayor of the southern city of Xiamen.
IN official biography The creation of the “first family of the state” is described as follows: “Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan fell in love at first sight in 1986 and got married the same year. Although they are forced to separate frequently due to work, they always understand and support each other and do their best to take care of each other."
It is curious that Xi Jinping’s colleagues in the city government only learned at the wedding that he was marrying a famous singer. They joked then that the promising vice-mayor turned out to be the king of conspiracy.
Sweet singing of the lute
“She is like the sweet singing of a lute, capable of touching even soulless iron; like the flight of a dragon piercing the clouds. The heart joyfully responds to her, and together with the heart the mountains and rivers, the moon and stars sing in harmony,” this is how the writer Wei Yong described the ideal of a beauty in the 17th century.
Peng Liyuan's artistic career was predetermined by the fact that her father was in charge of a cultural center in Shandong province. And my mother worked in the genre of traditional Chinese opera “yuju” in a small county troupe. Having received a secondary music education on the advice of her parents, Peng Liyuan at the age of 18 joined the ranks of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA). The career of an army singer opened up enormous opportunities. The PLA music and dance groups, under the jurisdiction of the Main Political Directorate, were staffed with first-class personnel, had good rehearsal facilities and were well supplied. They were given the best concert venues and the opportunity to earn good money during commercial tours. All that remains is to conquer the “soulless iron,” but the talented girl, who has an excellent soprano voice and has mastered the skills of folk singing since childhood, succeeded to the fullest.
As a soloist of the PLA Song and Dance Ensemble, Peng Liyuan enjoyed fantastic popularity in China. Without exaggeration, at one time Peng was more famous than her husband. A performer of patriotic and folk songs, she was a constant participant in the most popular program on Chinese TV - the annual gala concert, dedicated to the Holiday Springs ( New Year By lunar calendar).
Her vocal art was known not only in China. Peng Liyuan's voice has been heard at many venues around the world, including New York's Lincoln Center and the Vienna State Opera. Numerous titles and diplomas are evidence of success. In the Western press you can often read that Peng Liyuan has the rank of major general. In fact, in the army she is on civil service, simply her position and support are equivalent to the military rank of general. But, strictly speaking, she is not a major general of the PLA.
Debut in Moscow
Peng Liyuan also performed in Moscow. So, on November 6, 2007, she appeared on the stage of the Kremlin Palace. At the closing ceremony of the Year of China in Russia, the singer performed a fragment from the opera “Farewell, My Concubine.” They say that initially another singer was included in the concert program, but high politics intervened. As a result of the just-concluded 17th Congress of the CPC, the question of the leader of the “fifth generation” of Chinese leaders was resolved in principle. Xi Jinping became a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, and therefore the future “successor” of Hu Jintao as Secretary General and Chairman of the PRC. Perhaps this is why Peng Liyuan went to Moscow, and thus the “diplomatic run-in” of the future first lady took place in Russia.
When Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow in March 2013 almost immediately after being appointed chairman of the People's Republic of China, Peng Liyuan had an equally busy agenda. She visited boarding school No. 15 for orphans and children without parental care.
Naturally, there were military-musical contacts. Peng Liyuan met with colleagues from the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble Russian Army them. A.V. Alexandrov, who is well known in China. “Music knows no boundaries,” Peng Liyuan said after listening to an impromptu concert, adding that she would be glad to see the ensemble on tour in China again. To confirm the Chinese people’s love for Russian and Soviet song classics, Peng Liyuan, together with the choir and orchestra of the ensemble, performed the song “Oh, the viburnum is blooming.” The first verse is in Chinese, and the second and third are in Russian.
First Lady in Focus
Peng Liyuan's first trip abroad in a new capacity was literally viewed under a microscope by the Chinese public. There was a lot of discussion on the Internet about how elegantly Xi Jinping’s wife dresses. After the Moscow visit, several groups of Peng Liyuan fans opened on Chinese social networks. However, some of these online communities did not last long and were closed by censors. Conservative party propagandists had great difficulty getting used to the fact that the wife of a top leader became the subject of public discussion. True, over time, discussions about Peng Liyuan’s outfits and manners became commonplace. Decisive role, apparently, the position of Xi Jinping played a role - he has repeatedly made it clear that it is time to break dogmatic approaches to covering the activities of the authorities.
In addition, Peng Liyuan, by her behavior, only confirmed the political guidelines that her husband voiced. Modesty of an official and respect for people? A photo of Xi's wife, standing in line with everyone else at a symphony concert, is making the rounds on the Internet. Need to support a domestic manufacturer? During a series of visits to Europe, Peng Liyuan demonstrates that he uses a Chinese smartphone Nubia Z5 mini (the price of this model is no more than $300). On the Chinese Internet they write very approvingly that the magnificent outfits in which Peng Liyuan appears were created exclusively by Chinese designers. Do we need to level out social disparities and fight AIDS? Peng Liyuan participates in a program to support rural schools, and with her active participation, the first in China was launched in Shanxi Province educational institution for HIV-infected children. Need to support those affected by the devastating earthquake in Sichuan? Peng Liyuan gave free concerts there, and the daughter of Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan, Xi Mingze, worked as a volunteer in one of the small schools.
Peng Liyuan is a Goodwill Ambassador World Organization health care to help patients with tuberculosis and AIDS, and also became famous as an anti-smoking activist. She even took a photo with founder of Microsoft Bill Gates wearing red T-shirts with messages written in Chinese about the dangers of second-hand smoke. It is clear that such freedom was not previously allowed in the prim Chinese corridors of power. Now Peng Liyuan has something to talk about with the spouses of foreign leaders, many of whom are also actively working in the field of socially significant projects and charity.
Soft power
During Xi Jinping's first trip to Europe, there was a minor sensation. At the reception ceremony at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, the Chinese leader and Peng Liyuan appeared in traditional Chinese costumes. Previously, the leaders of the Celestial Empire chose standard Western suits and ties for such events. Traditional chinese style clothing was allowed only for wives.
In order to correctly understand what determined the choice of clothing of Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan at the meeting with the King of the Netherlands, it is worth recalling the first statements of the Chinese leader in his new post. The central place in them was occupied by discussions about the “Chinese dream”, about the revival of the Chinese nation. Of course, this policy also has an external aspect - the use of China's rich cultural traditions as an element of "soft power" to promote its influence in the world. In this area, Peng Liyuan supports her husband like no one else.
Along with an aggressive foreign policy and a gradual departure from Deng Xiaoping’s covenant to “keep a low profile,” the current leadership associates the new image of China abroad with a rethinking of previous protocol restrictions, in particular the requirements for how the “first couple” should look and behave.