Xi Jinping: China’s most powerful man and his wife

Xi Jinping is a mystery to many Westerners. He rules China with an iron fist and yet, according to Chinese media, is revered. The pronunciation of his name is also a mystery. At least we can quickly resolve this point. Xi Jinping is pronounced “Schi Dschingpin.”

• Xi was born on June 15, 1953, in Beijing. When he was 15 years old, he moved to the Chinese hinterland, where he earned his living as a farm boy and lived in a cave. Today, tourists can marvel at that very cave. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists in particular are drawn there.
• Xi worked hard, according to his own account, always with his goal in mind: he wanted to become a politician. Xi tried ten times to join the Communist Party, nine times without success. The reason was the past of Xi’s father, who fell out of favor with the party as a communist revolutionary and was arrested in 1962. Xi’s sister took her own life as a result.
• Xi Jinping wanted to do things differently than his father. His perseverance finally earned him entry into the party in 1973. He steadily worked his way up until he was finally elected President of the People’s Republic of China in 2013.
• Xi’s leadership style differs significantly from that of his predecessors. Whereas Chinese presidents had previously been a closed book, Xi came across as down-to-earth and close to the people. It was nothing short of a minor revolution that everyone in China knew who the president was married to.
• To reinforce his down-to-earth image, Xi travels exclusively by scheduled flights within China. However, this means that the aircraft must be equipped with a living room, bedroom, and office each time. This is a major undertaking that turns down-to-earthness into a curiosity.
• End of July 2022: China continues to move closer to North Korea, with two horror scenarios looming in the Far East
• Closing session of the party congress at the end of October 2022 in China: Xi continues to expand his power
• December 1, 2022: Xi has once again warned of an escalation and expansion of the Ukraine conflict. According to state television, Xi said during a meeting with EU Council President Charles Michel that the side effects of the war must also be controlled. Peace talks are necessary, he said. China supports the European Union in strengthening its mediation efforts and leading the creation of a balanced security architecture in Europe. To date, China has not criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has instead given President Vladimir Putin its backing.
• By condemning threats to use nuclear weapons, which Xi first voiced during Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SPD) visit in early November, as well as in negotiations at the summit of the major economic powers (G20) in mid-November in Bali, Indonesia, China appeared to distance itself from its support, at least behind the scenes.
• February 24, 2023: China has called for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war. In a highly anticipated position paper published by Beijing’s Foreign Ministry on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it calls for a swift resumption of negotiations between the two sides. “Dialogue and negotiations are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis,” it said.

Uncle image is a distraction – Xi is anything but harmless

Behind the publicly displayed down-to-earth attitude, political calculation can certainly be suspected. It is about expanding and maintaining power. The millions of people who are imprisoned, some for questionable reasons, show that Xi is not a harmless uncle. For example, former real estate manager Ren Zhiqiang was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2020 for calling Xi a clown, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

• In addition, in 2018, China’s most powerful man abolished a law that had previously limited the term of office of a Chinese head of state to a maximum of ten years. Xi Jinping has thus elevated himself to ruler for life.
• In the Western media, Xi is also repeatedly criticized for oppressing and silencing not only opposition figures but also the Uyghur minority with his restrictive measures. Another point of criticism is public digital surveillance, which extends far into the private lives of Chinese citizens.
• However, Xi’s personal public enemy number one is a small yellow bear. At the first meeting between Xi and then-US President Barack Obama, the politicians were compared by the media to the Disney characters Tigger and the chubby bear Winnie the Pooh.
• The honey-loving Winnie the Pooh quickly became a problem bear for Xi. According to media reports, he banned any comparisons with the Disney bear and banished Winnie the Pooh from China – including the internet. This was reported by The Guardian, among others. There is a similar story about the ban on pandas.
• In mid-February 2023, China expert Adrian Geiges called Xi a “control freak” on Lanz’s show – and painted a bleak picture.

Xi the family man: wife and children

Xi likes to portray himself as a loving family man. He met and fell in love with his wife, singer Peng Liyuan, in 1986. The couple married a year later. Xi and Peng are parents to a daughter named Xi Mingze. The girl was born in 1992.

• Xi lives on a large estate in the middle of Beijing. He is said to like getting up early, preferably before sunrise, and working late into the night. Whether this is true has not been confirmed.
• What is known is that the Chinese head of state has a fondness for soccer. When traveling around the world on political business, he is said to often stock up on soccer souvenirs. He is now said to have built up a considerable collection of soccer jerseys.
• Xi is considered an educated man with a fondness for classical literature. Among other works, he is said to have read Goethe’s “Faust” and Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital.”
• The extent of Xi’s wealth is not known. Among other things, the New York Times researched the stock assets, company shares, and real estate holdings of the family members of Xi Jinping’s powerful officials—whereupon Xi had internet access to the New York Times blocked in China. The result of the investigation was that Xi’s inner circle is sitting on billions in assets. Either way, Xi is likely to be a very wealthy man.