Xi Jinping disappointed Chinese Communist Party reformers who thought he would be more like his father. In this excerpt from his new biography of Xi Zhongxun, Professor Joseph Torigian ponders “the mystery of Xi Jinping”.
Xi Zhongxun with his sons Jinping (left) and Yuanping (center), 1958. Source: Xi Zhongxun huace, 167 via Stanford University Press
In December 2002, less than one month after he became the top party leader in Zhejiang Province, Xi Jinping treated his father’s old friend Li Rui to breakfast at an extremely expensive restaurant intended to host ministerial officials. They discussed Zhongxun’s behavior when Hu Yaobang was removed from power in 1987, as well as how, after he died two years later, Li had left Hu’s wake to visit Zhongxun at the Great Hall of the People.
Xi Zhongxun with Xinjiang's then Vice Chairman (lef
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