Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping (2019)

Xi Jinping ( Chinese  習近平  /  习近平 , Pinyin Xí Jìnpíng , IPA : [ɕǐ tɕînpʰǐŋ]; born June 15, 1953 in Beijing ) is a Chinese politician . He has been General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2012 and President of the People's Republic of China since 2013 .

Xi Jinping is due to his autocratic abundance of power as " Outstanding Leader " (Paramount Leader) or "Supreme Leader" ( Chinese 最高 领导人 Zuìgāo Lǐngdǎorén ) and due to the concentration of several offices in his hand as one of the most powerful rulers on earth. In 2018, he lifted the presidential term in office and allowed himself to govern for life.

Xi scaled back the reform policies of his predecessors such as Hu Jintao and pursued a stronger “ patriotic ” ideologization as well as a more aggressive foreign and domestic policy - for example through stronger digital surveillance of the population and a more restrictive approach towards the Uighur minority.

Origin and education

Xi as a child (left) with brother Yuanping and father Zhongxun (1958)

Xi was born to Xi Zhongxun , who was from Fuping, Shaanxi Province . Xi Zhongxun was a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1928 , Vice Premier of the PRC (1959–1962) and Governor of Guangdong Province (1979–1981). In his early childhood, Xi Jinping lived a relatively privileged life as the son of a high party official. That changed with the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s , when Mao Zedong's Red Guards arrested his father and humiliated and threatened the family. To escape the unfavorable conditions, Xi Jinping fled as a youth to the countryside in the village of Liángjiāhé (梁家 河), where he lived for several years as a farm laborer and lived in a cave. In 1974, Xi Jinping joined the CCP. From 1975 to 1979, Xi studied chemical engineering at Beijing Tsinghua University . From 1998 to 2002 he again completed a part-time postgraduate course in Marxist philosophy and ideological education at Tsinghua University and obtained his doctorate in law (LLD), a degree that covers the areas of law, politics, management and "revolutionary history" .

Career

After Xi was first vice mayor in Xiamen , Fujian , he became a member of the Fujian provincial administration and chairman of the Fuzhou People's Congress in 1993 . After five and a half years as deputy party secretary in Fujian (1995-2000), he became governor of Fujian and at the same time a member of the party leadership in Zhejiang Province . In 2002, he became the governor of Zhejiang.

In 2003, Xi became secretary of the provincial committee and chairman of the Zhejiang People's Congress. He was a non-voting member of the 15th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and a member of the 16th Central Committee.

After Chen Liangyu's dismissal , he replaced the provisionally appointed mayor of Shanghai , Han Zheng , in his function as party leader in Shanghai in March 2007 . Xi was elected to the CCP Political Bureau Standing Committee in October 2007, responsible for Hong Kong and Macau affairs . After his election as Vice President of the People's Republic during the session of the 11th National People's Congress on March 15, 2008, Xi was the designated successor to Hu Jintao .

In early September 2012, Xi Jinping was not seen in public for a long time and canceled all appointments with foreign politicians, including Hillary Clinton . The resulting speculation about his whereabouts tried to curb the Chinese Internet censorship by largely preventing searches for Xi Jinping in Chinese search engines. Chinese internet users tried to circumvent the censorship by using alternative spellings for Xi's name, but these variants were quickly blocked as well. Only after more than two weeks did Xi appear again in public, with neither himself nor official bodies commenting on speculations about his health.

At the 18th Congress, Xi Jinping was elected to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on November 15, 2012, and was elected General Secretary of the CCP (Paramount Leader) on November 15, 2012 . This is where the so-called fifth generation of leaders in the People's Republic of China came to power. The innermost circle of the leadership of the country also includes the six other members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China . On March 14, 2013, Xi was named the new President of the People's Republic of China by the National People's Congress .

On March 11, 2018, the National People's Congress decided to lift the presidential term limit introduced in the 1980s and thus allow Xi Jinping to serve beyond 2023. On March 17, 2018, Xi Jinping was confirmed in office as president and chief of the military.

Political positions

During his tenure as governor of Fujian, Xi worked to encourage Taiwanese entrepreneurs to invest in China. He also focused on opening up to the market economy. During his reign in Zhejiang, Xi focused on fighting corruption .

Under Xi, China has taken a more critical stance on North Korea , while relations with South Korea have improved. Relations with Japan continue to be overshadowed by the conflict over the Senkaku Islands and the insufficient processing of Japanese war crimes in World War II from the Chinese perspective. Regarding Sino-US relations, Xi said, "If [China and the United States ] are in confrontation, it would certainly be a disaster for both countries."

Xi Jinping with Dmitry Medvedev in September 2010

In the Ukraine crisis in 2014 , relations with the reinforced Russian Federation . Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin share common positions vis-à-vis the Western world in many ways.

Under his leadership, China began implementing the policy of assimilation , the Xinjiang re-education camps , an ethnocide against Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang that same year .

In July 2017, Putin awarded Xi the Order of Saint Andrew the First Called - the highest Russian order. The medal was presented in the Kremlin on July 4th.

Xi also supported the party's rehabilitation of Confucianism as well as the theory of legalism , which calls for harsh application of the law as an instrument of government. Since the beginning of the crisis in the Chinese economy, the repression of opposition members under Xi has reached a level not usual for decades.

The fight against corruption, which began during his tenure in Zhejiang, became a key element of his policy as head of state and party from 2012. In the first years of the anti-corruption campaign up to August 2016, more than a million party members were investigated, including over 187,000 cases of party officials which resulted in criminal proceedings in around 91,900 cases.

Hong Kong protesters throw eggs at a propaganda picture of Xi

The sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee adopted a document in October 2016, in which Xi is referred to as the “central leader” ( 领导 核心 , lǐngdǎo héxīn ) of the party. This assignment, which all heads of state and party leaders received with the exception of Hu Jintao , is understood as an expression of a new, strict party discipline under the undeniable leadership of Xi. Xi's new position is portrayed as being so desired by the public and viewed by leading party members as necessary in a time of great change.

According to the Australian political scientist John Garnaut, he stated in the Xi ideology that he had committed himself to the revolutionary philosophy of Joseph Stalin for China . Thus, he positions him as the defender of Stalin's legacy.

Xi Jinping with Peng Liyuan and Donald Trump in November 2017

In October 2017, the almost 2,300 delegates at the 19th party congress strengthened his position of power by including " Xi Jinping's ideas for the new age of socialism with Chinese characteristics " as a guideline in the party constitution. After Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, Xi is the third party leader to be mentioned by name in the statutes, although his guidelines are difficult to grasp according to expert opinions.

family

Shortly after college - in the 1980s - Xi married his first wife, Ke Xiaoming. When the daughter of the Chinese ambassador to Great Britain went to England and Xi stayed in China, the couple divorced.

Since 1987 he has been married to Peng Liyuan (born November 20, 1962), a well-known folk music singer and member of the music corps of the People's Liberation Army , in his second marriage . Their daughter Mingze, born in 1992, studied at Harvard University . She successfully completed her studies in 2014 and lives in Beijing.

In 2012, the Bloomberg news agency published a report that the Xi Jinping's family had made a fortune of several hundred million dollars by exploiting their political ties. Xi himself could not be proven wrong. Bloomberg's website was blocked after it was published in the People's Republic of China.

In January 2014, research by offshore leaks revealed that a brother-in-law of Xi Jinping was moving the family's funds abroad via offshore companies.

Trivia

Because Xi Jinping is said to be similar to Winnie the Pooh , the term and image of Winnie the Pooh are being censored in China.

He was voted the most powerful person in the world by the American business magazine Forbes in 2018 .

literature

• Xi Jinping , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 29/2013 from July 16, 2013, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• François Bougon: Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping . London: Hurst & Company 2018. ISBN 978-184904-984-9
• Kerry Brown : The Rise of Xi Jiping . New York, London: Tauris 2016. ISBN 978-1-78453877-4
• Kerry Brown: The World According to Xi Jinping. Everything You Need to Know About the New China . New York, London: Tauris 2018. ISBN 978-1-78831328-5

English: The world of Xi Jinping: Everything you need to know about the new China. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 3-10-397416-7 .

• Kerry Brown, UA Bērziņa-Čerenkova: Ideology in the Era of Xi Jinping , in: Journal of Chinese Political Science. 2018. pp. 1–17 [1]

Web links

Commons : Xi Jinping  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• CV (English)
• Wikileaks Depeche on Xi Jinping. In: spiegel.de
• "Number one" allows a look behind the curtain. In: Welt Online , December 28, 2012
• China: The World of Xi Jinping ARTE documentary, December 13, 2018
• John Garnaut: Engineers of the Soul: What the Whole World Should Know About the Ideology of Xi Jinping's China. (pdf) Speech at the Asian Strategic and Economic Seminar Series 2017. In: International Society for Human Rights - Munich. January 17, 2019, archived from the original on January 17, 2019 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ SF Tagesschau, November 15, 2012
2. ↑ The ideologues are back , Articles of the Times
3. ↑ Succession in China: Next in line. In: The Economist , October 18, 2010.
4. ^ Carrie Gracie: How China guards the Xi creation myth. In: BBC News. October 18, 2015, accessed October 18, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Xi Jinping
6. ↑ Hu and Xi at the head of China. ( Memento from April 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tages-Anzeiger , March 15, 2008.
7. ↑ Xi Jinping: Designated head of state of China missing. In: Manager Magazin online. September 11, 2012, accessed September 12, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Victor Mair: Where's Xi? In: Language Log. September 10, 2012, accessed September 12, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Felix Lee: Xi is back. In: taz.de. September 15, 2012, accessed September 15, 2012 . 
10. ↑ China's communists herald a change of power. In: NZZ.ch , November 14, 2012
11. ↑ Xi Jinping is the new head of the Chinese Communist Party. In: welt.de , November 15, 2012, accessed October 24, 2017
12. ↑ After the party congress - Who has power in China. In: faz.net , November 15, 2012, accessed the same day
13. ↑ People's Congress: Xi Jinping is the new President of China. In: Spiegel Online , March 14, 2013, accessed on March 14, 2013.
14. ↑ China clears way for Xi Jinping to rule for life. CNN, March 11, 2018, accessed March 11, 2018 . 
15. ↑ Chinese President Xi confirmed in office - without a dissenting vote. In: Spiegel Online . March 17, 2018, accessed March 17, 2018.
16. ^ Li, Cheng (2014): A New Type of Major Power Relationship? The Brookings Institution (interview)
17. ↑ Ng, Teddy; Kwong, Man-ki (2014): President Xi Jinping warns of disaster if Sino-US relations sour. In: scmp.com
18. ↑ Ng, Teddy; Kwong, Man-ki: President Xi Jinping warns of disaster if Sino-US relations sour. July 9, 2014
19. ^ Baker, Peter (2014): As Russia Draws Closer to China, US Faces a New Challenge. In: The New York Times .
20. ↑ Presentation of the Order of St. Andrew the First Called to the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping. In: kremlin.ru (Russian)
21. ^ Fei Fei: 1 mln officials punished for corruption. In: China Radio International , October 21, 2016, accessed October 28, 2016
22. ↑ Strict new party discipline rules on way. In: China Radion International , October 25, 2016, accessed October 26, 2016
23. ↑ Chen Heying: 6th plenum hails Xi as core leader. In: Global Times , October 28, 2016, accessed October 28
24. ↑ Xi's core status is consensus of CPC: official. In: China Radio International , October 28, 2016, accessed October 28, 2016
25. ↑ Xi as core long affirmed by public opinion. In: Global Times , October 28, 2016, accessed October 28, 2016
26. ↑ Shan Jie, Officials resolve to follow Xi as 'core'. In: Global Times , October 31, 2016, pp. 1–2, accessed November 4, 2016
27. ↑ John Pomfret: Xi Jinping's quest to revive Stalin's communist ideology. The Washington Post , October 16, 2017, archived from the original on July 20, 2019 ; accessed on March 15, 2020 (English). 
28. ^ Party congress in China: Xi - on a par with Mao. In: tagesschau.de , October 24, 2017, accessed October 24, 2017.
29. ↑ Osnos, Evan: Born Red: How Xi Jinping, an unremarkable provincial administrator, became China's most authoritarian leader since Mao . The New Yorker. April 6, 2015. Accessed October 24, 2017.
30. ↑ Chin. 习 明泽 / 習 明澤
31. ↑ Wife of China's Next Leader a Star in Her Own Right. In: goldsea.com
32. ^ Benedikt Voigt: China: The corrupt caste of state officials. In: Der Tagesspiegel , September 15, 2012. Accessed October 23, 2013.
33. ↑ Xi Jinping - China's New Strong Man ( November 17, 2012 memento in the Internet Archive ). In: Tagesschau (ARD) , November 8, 2012. Accessed October 23, 2013
34. ↑ Tricky deals from China's power elite ( Memento from January 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau.de
35. ^ Benjamin Haas: China bans Winnie the Pooh film after comparisons to President Xi. In: theguardian.com. August 7, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
36. ↑ Anzhelika Sauer: Where Pooh the Bear is on the index. In: sueddeutsche.de . September 24, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
37. ↑ David M. Ewalt, Igor Bosilkovski: The World's Most Powerful People 2018. Accessed March 23, 2019 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Hu Jintao	General Secretary of the Communist Party of China 2012–	-
Hu Jintao	President of the People's Republic of China 2013–	-

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Xi is the family name here, Jinping is the first name.