Xi JinPing’s character traits, his philosophy of rule and some of his beliefs

that have made China the 2nd most powerful nation in the world

1. Go-Getter in life, hungry to achieve

 When Xi was 10, his father was accused of leading an anti-Party group and was
forced out of his leadership and sent to work in a factory. 5 years later his father
was jailed during the Cultural Revolution and Xi was among the 30 Million youth
that was forced out their cities to labour in the countryside. After a few months Xi
ran way to Beijing and was arrested and was sent to a work camp to dig ditches.
He worked as an agricultural laborer from age 15 to 21.
 Over the last 50 years Xi — the son of a powerful communist revolutionary —
strategically used his personal life narrative as a cave-dwelling farmer during the
Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and '70s to grant himself political validation as
he rose steadily but patiently through ranks of the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) right to the top.
 Xi joined communist Youth League of China 1971 after being rejected 7 times.
From 1973 he applied to join communist party of China 10 times and was finally
accepted on his 10th attempt in 1974
 He describes his situation during these times as,“ Fat in January, thin in February,
half dead in March & April. We say a sword is made on a grinding stone and man
is forged in hardship”- JinPing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPxmBxON1l8

 Xi believes in supreme power and his vision is to reintegrate lost territories like
Hong Kong & Taiwan and to become world’s leading economic power
challenging the US
 Supremely pragmatic, friendly in nature, a realist, with his "eyes on the prize"
from early adulthood and this quality did not let him give up his political
ambitions
2. ME FIRST philosophy
 Removing the 10 year term and becoming an indefinite leader. Unlike his
predecessor Hu Jintao, Mr Xi acquired all three leadership roles — head of the
Communist Party, military and state — by the start of his tenure in 2013. He also
holds a designationcalled the ‘Chairman of Everything’
 He has centralized his power and created working groups with himself at the head
to subvert government bureaucracy, making himself become the unmistakable
central figure of new administration
 One astute insider described him as “a needle concealed in silk floss”.
Schools, newspapers, television, the internet, billboards and banners all trumpet
the ideas of Mr. Xi, the country’s president and Communist Party leader.
 “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,”
the ideology will soon be given an even more prominent platform: the preamble of
China’s Constitution
 In a recent speech, President Xi Jinping directed the global giants operating in
China to work on employee welfare and ensure better living standards for them.

3. Hungry for Supreme Control

 Mr. Xi’s philosophy teaches that the goal of a powerful, unified China can be
achieved only if the Communist Party stays firmly in control of China.
 Mr. Xi has taken aggressive steps to revitalize the Communist Party’s grip on
business, the news media, the internet, culture and education. The influence of
party permeates every corner of society — even rap music.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/world/asia/xi-jinping-thought-explained-a-
new-ideology-for-a-new-era.html

 Xi Jinping Thought promotes the supremacy of the Communist Party to growing

the numbers of avid consumers, internet users and world travelers — a group
fundamentally different from the workers and peasants who were supposed to be
the soul of the Communist Revolution.
 Removing the two generals was the latest step by Mr. Xi to strengthen his grip on
the military, a pillar of Communist Party power. On the eve of the party congress,
which kicked off his second five-year term as the nation’s leader, he concluded
that he must exert greater control to remake the country’s armed forces into a
power worthy of China’s global standing.
 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/world/asia/xi-jinping-military-china-
purge.html
 Meanwhile China has seen increasing clampdowns on freedoms, from rising
online censorship to arrests of dissidents and human rights lawyers, leading some
to describe Mr Xi as "the most authoritarian leader since Chairman Mao".
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11551399
 Currently he is listed as #1 on the Forbes list of most powerful people (2018)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbespr/2018/05/08/forbes-releases-2018-list-of-the-worlds-most-
powerful-people/#2301c12c719c

1) Xi Jinping
2) Vladamir Putin
3) Donald Trump

4. Shrewd Business sense

Control over internet to leverage foreign companies
 The trouble started when wags on Chinese social media spotted a similarity
between a photo of Xi Jinping strolling with Barack Obama and a classic image of
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. From then on, China’s internet censors have waged
war
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Thoughts_Chairman_Xi

 When Xi visited Seattle in 2015, America’s technology giants allowed themselves

to be summoned.
 The bosses of Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and Amazon all stood alongside Xi in
the front row of a group photograph. All have since embarked on multiple
partnerships with China despite its commitment to perfecting internet censorship.
Also prominent in that photo was Mark Zuckerberg, but despite a charm offensive
which included inviting the Chinese Communist leader to suggest a name for his
baby, and praising Xi’s book on governance, Facebook is still barred from China.
Google’s founders were not even invited to be in Xi’s photo.
 Facebook’s messaging tool Whatsapp is increasingly blocked in China and Apple
has now removed from its China App Store the VPNs which once gave Chinese
users access to social media tools in the West, including the YouTube channel
which gave the gleeful Guo Wengui such a devastating platform to discredit Xi’s
rule. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Thoughts_Chairman_Xi
 Increasing dependence of the world on China for their manufacturing needs.
Domestic Chinese companies are going beyond the “faster, cheaper” fixation that
has characterized their approach to R&D in the recent years. The other focus is to
build smart supply chain mechanisms as in the coming years the possibility of
dependence on chinese goods could see a reduction
 While China’s increasing foreign investments in nations in Latin America, Africa,
Asia and the Middle East have been well documented over the past 15 years,
Beijing’s foreign assistance spending is officially classified as a state secret. 
 But the more significant trend is China’s increasing investment in other countries,
particularly in the developing world: Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and
Africa.
 Three obvious objectives underlie Chinese overseas investment: to secure the
supply of resources such as oil and raw materials; to enter new markets (often by
acquiring local brands and distribution networks); and to gain new skills and
technological competence.
 China is creating a debt-trap for countries like Africa, by providing them huge
loans and investing in their country.
 Example of a cash-strapped Sri Lanka handing over its China-financed port to a
Chinese state-run company on a 99-year lease, the line of argument looks
threatening.

https://www.strategy-business.com/article/05401?gko=b7f9f

5. Resistant to the seductive power of liberal values

 Xi has a different vision of a China that is rich, united and strong under a
disciplined one-party narrative. Wherever ideas are formed and transmitted, he has
worked to recapture control
 On university campuses, Party leadership is being “enhanced” and academic
textbooks scoured of Western influence. Private companies are eagerly
announcing internal Communist Party cells, with even Shanghai’s Disney Resort
enthusing that “some really good ideas come from the Party committee”
 A nation of active citizens is Xi’s nightmare. Christians, Muslims, labour activists,
bloggers, reporters, feminists, and lawyers have been jailed for speaking or acting
on their convictions. In some cases, they have also been paraded in televised
confessions, recanting their beliefs and echoing the Party line that they allowed
themselves to become pawns of China’s enemies in the West. Rebranding some
expressions of conscience as a threat to national security is central to Xi’s politics.
  He wants his citizens to identify with “the motherland, the Chinese nation or race,
Chinese culture, and the Chinese socialist road”. He calls these the “four
identifications” and has distilled them into two key slogans - the great rejuvenation
of the Chinese nation and the Chinese dream.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Thoughts_Chairman_Xi

6. Clear focus to make China the most powerful country in the world
Focus on 3 things:
Infrastructure development of another level
Shift towards building Advanced Tech
Build a China centered global trade network
 The country is no longer hiding its political potential. China is here to (re-)shape
international affairs.
 China’s global ambition is now built on ports, highways and pipelines in the
expansion of its supply chain empire. More to the point, China's grand strategy is
built on developing new markets for advanced Chinese technology.
 Where Western leaders cling to outworn notions of the Westphalian nation-state,
Xi’s China is reimagining the world as a single complex network of supply chains
and trade arteries.
 Xi Jinping’s signature project, the multi-trillion dollar “Belt and Road Initiative”
(BRI) stretches across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, and represents
the largest infrastructure project in history.
 Constructing a comprehensive trade network for Chinese goods, BRI offers a
platform for China’s long-term strategic shift around advanced technologies. This
includes electric vehicles (EV), telecommunications, robotics, artificial
intelligence (AI), semiconductors, clean energy technology, advanced electrical
equipment, rail infrastructure and maritime engineering.
 The Chinese government calls the initiative "a bid to enhance regional
connectivity and embrace a brighter future". Some observers see it as a push for
Chinese dominance in global affairs with a China-centered trading network.
The project has a targeted completion date of 2049 which coincides with the 100th
anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielaraya/2019/01/14/chinas-grand-
strategy/#627559491f18

7. Control of Military- To keep his political ambitions alive

  Under Xi, China has expanded the size and scope of its military, purged corrupt
officers and built military installations in contested waters of the South China Sea
 He has combined national rejuvenation, military modernisation, ideological purity
and a crackdown on graft in a potent mix of appeals designed to boost the army’s
fighting spirit.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2104915/whats-driving-chinese-
president-xi-jinpings-military

8. Xi’s People first philosophy

 In his quest to fight red tapism, Xi did a major crackdown through hisAnti-
corruption campaign
 A far-reaching campaign against corruption began in China following the
conclusion of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in
2012. The campaign, carried out under the aegis of Xi Jinping, General Secretary
of the Communist Party of China, was the largest organized anti-graft effort in the
history of Communist rule in China.
 Upon taking office, Xi vowed to crack down on "tigers and flies", that is, high-
level officials and local civil servants alike. Most of the officials investigated were
removed from office and faced accusations of bribery and abuse of power,
although the range of alleged abuses varied widely. The campaign 'netted' over
120 high-ranking officials, including about a dozen high-ranking military officers,
several senior executives of state-owned companies, and five national leaders
(list).More than 100,000 people have been indicted for corruption. It became an
emblematic feature of Xi Jinping's political brand.

 China's anti-corruption campaign recovers $519 million in a year making it a hit

with the majority of the public of China

Find more on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-

corruption_campaign_under_Xi_Jinping

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-s-anti-corruption-campaign-recovers-519-
million-year-n957491

 Making development people-centered has been acted on, a whole raft of initiatives
to benefit the people has seen implementation, and the people's sense of
fulfillment has grown stronger.
 Decisive progress has been made in the fight against poverty: more than 60
million people have been lifted out of poverty, and the poverty headcount ratio has
dropped from 10.2 percent to less than 4 percent.
 All-round progress has been made in the development of education, with
remarkable advances made in the central and western regions and in rural areas.
Employment has registered steady growth, with an average of over 13 million
urban jobs created each year. Growth of urban and rural personal incomes has
outpaced economic growth, and the middle-income group has been expanding.
 A social security system covering both urban and rural residents has taken shape;
both public health and medical services have improved markedly. Solid progress
has been made in building government-subsidized housing projects to ensure basic
needs are met.

9. Playing with fear- A Communication for the Global Community

“He who rules by virtue is like the North Star. It maintains its place, and the
multitude of stars pay homage,” Xi said, quoting the ancient philosopher
Confucius
 In 2014 the then-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the visiting Xi
Jinping it was a “joy to have friends come from afar”. But the day before he had
privately told the German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Australia’s China policy
was driven by “fear and greed”
 Xi's more aggressive approach to foreign affairs is receiving increasing pushback
from countries including Australia, which announced a ‘foreign interference law’
in December 2017 amid growing concerns within the intelligence community
about the influence of Chinese Government agents and political donations.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-24/explainer-foreign-interference-
laws/9356050
 The country has become more assertive on the global stage, from its continued
dominance in the South China Sea despite international protestations, to its
exercise of soft power by pumping billions of dollars into Asian and African
investments
 Both fear and greed are powerful motivators in the context of a rising China, and
Xi has been bold in exploiting them, globalising a control strategy of carrots and
sticks that works well at home.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Thoughts_Chairman_Xi

10. Far sightedness- Preparing for the future in advance

 China’s leaders have set a 30-year target for modernizing the country’s economy
and governance – a long-term goal that reflects the kind of vision that few
countries have managed to articulate, let alone implement. By removing the
presidential term limit, China’s leadership is improving its chances of success, by
opening the way for Xi and his vice president, Wang Qishan, to go further in
realizing this vision.
 Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” industrial policy seeks to position China as
a high-tech global superpower. China is spending billions of dollars on science
and technology, developing research in genomics, quantum computing, robotics,
and advanced materials. The country’s technology leaders, Huawei and ZTE are
becoming global giants. Huawei is the world's sixth-largest information
technology company (by revenue) and employs 170,000 workers. ZTE
supports telecom providers and governments in more than 160 countries,
employing 75,000 workers
 China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) now rivals the World
Bank and its BRI (Belt and road initiative) ensures China’s long-term leadership
across emerging economies.
 The Chinese government put into effect some twenty measures on March 1, 2016,
to attract managerial-level professionals, Chinese born abroad, entrepreneurs, fresh
graduates of foreign origin.
 Other than this, the Chinese 3.0 leadership, as we call it, is emphasizing the
importance of creating new growth drivers that will eventually take over the older
economy issues.
 This is clearly visible in various industry initiatives of China, they are now even
giving implicit approval to foreign investment in technology.

https://www.hackerearth.com/blog/developers/reasons-why-china-is-growing-fast/

 China’s economy may soon be 40% larger than that of the US, measured in
“purchasing power parity”. By 2049, it may be three times as large

11. Xi plays to win

Xi has the soul of a competitor. In discussing his desire for China to become an
innovation nation, Xi clearly is unhappy with China’s second-tier status, stating: “We
cannot always decorate our tomorrow with others’ yesterdays. We cannot always rely
on others’ scientific and technological achievements for our own progress.” The
answer for him rests overwhelmingly in indigenous innovation: “Most importantly, we
should unswervingly follow an independent innovation path featuring Chinese
characteristics
Only by holding key technology in our own hands can we really take the initiative in
competition and development, and ensure our economic security, national security, and
security in other areas.” He concludes: “Scientific and technological competition is like
short-track speed skating. When we speed up, so will others. Those who can skate
faster and maintain a high speed longer will win the title”
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/ten-fascinating-facts-about-chinas-president-xi-
jinping-11475

12. So much control also suggests an increasingly nervous leader

 Measures taken by Xi Jinping, though show characteristics of strong dominance
but deep down showcase an underlying insecurity about the leader

- Increasingly consolidating power to himself

-Imposing obedience within the party and public

-Reasserting party control over the PLA

-Blanketing the country with intrusive surveillance systems

-Demanding an obsequious and unquestioning media

-Imprisoning hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uighurs in “re-education” camps

 He surely has much to worry about. His reforms and crackdowns have created
many enemies and much disgruntlement, especially among elites. Income disparity
has grown as wealth has become concentrated in fewer hands. The pace of China’s
economic growth is slowing. Localised unrest is common.

https://theconversation.com/xi-jinpings-grip-on-power-is-absolute-but-there-are-new-
threats-to-his-chinese-dream-118921
 This is why Beijing remains unwilling to let the people of Hong Kong elect their
executives, and why citizens across China are not free to form independent
organizations, whether they are civil, religious, professional or otherwise. It is not
that CCP leaders are averse to the notion of public participation — China’s
leadership simply wants any such moves to happen in a controlled manner.