The rise of Xi Jinping, explained

[audience applause] These are the 7 most powerful men in China. They represent the top leadership positions of the ruling party. .

. and their identities are revealed every five years. .

. at a carefully choreographed political event called the National Congress. “China's Communist Party unveiled its new leadership over the next five years.

” The order of appearance is symbolic. The first person to emerge is the head of the party for the next five years. At the most recent event in October 2022.

. . that person was Xi Jinping China's president for the last ten years.

. . who walked out in the top spot a historic third time after getting rid of China's presidential term limit that restricted all his predecessors to two terms.

A signal that he may be planning to stay in power for life. The world hasn't seen a Chinese leader like this since Mao Zedong. .

. the revolutionary founder of the People's Republic of China. .

. whose ruthless dictatorship scarred the Chinese people for generations. Xi has been compared to Mao a lot.

And he clearly draws from Mao's playbook. But there's something else that connects these two. When Xi was just a young boy.

. . Mao ruined his life.

Generations apart, their paths crossed unexpectedly and a teenage Xi from an elite family in Beijing. . .

ended up in exile. Condemned to hard labor in the countryside. 50 years later Xi is one of the most powerful political figures in the world and the only leader since Mao to have unchecked power over China.

So how did he go from being banished in his country. . .

to taking complete control of it? [sinister, electronic music] [music fades] Xi Jinping's connection to Mao formed long before Xi was even born. [dark, pensive music] It goes back to when a bloody civil war was raging in China.

A group of radical communist revolutionaries, including Mao gained influence over large swaths of mainland China. . .

and controlled a communist military called the Red Army. . .

that fought the Nationalist Party ruling the Republic of China at the time. At this point, the Communists were losing bad. The bulk of their army was pinned down here.

. . in a communist controlled region originally established by Mao.

. . now surrounded by Nationalist forces.

And they were running low on food. So the Red Army decided to launch a bold attack. .

. to break through the Nationalist forces and evacuate the roughly 130,000 communist soldiers and civilians stuck here. On October 16th, 1934, they made their move.

. . and attacked a weaker part of the enemy line.

They broke through. And even though their numbers quickly dropped with thousands dying and thousands more fleeing to the countryside. .

. around 86,000 stuck together and pushed on. This was the beginning of a year-long historic retreat called the Long March.

The journey to establish a new communist base. . .

far from the Nationalist forces. Mao, who used to be a military leader wasn't in charge at this time. He'd insisted on using guerrilla tactics which had heavily influenced the Red Army earlier in the war.

But that approach had fallen out of favor and he was demoted. The Long March changed that. After escaping the siege here the Red Army continued to suffer relentless attacks by the pursuing Nationalist army.

The military leaders of the march had pushed for a more traditional wartime strategy of direct confrontation. . .

rather than Mao's guerrilla tactics. And the result was catastrophic for the Red Army. Less than half of the original escape group survived the first three months alone.

So it was at this first stopping point where Communist Party leader Zhou Enlai. . .

handed military leadership back to Mao. And Mao picked an end point for the march. .

. here. 800 miles away in rural northern China.

But they didn't go straight for it. Mao led the Red Army deep into the mountains where he predicted lighter resistance. And he was right.

But the journey was still brutal. It was nine more months of nonstop marching and fighting along this several thousand mile route. .

. before they ultimately arrived in northern China. .

. where a guerrilla base led by a communist revolutaionary named Xi Zhongxun, offered Mao's army refuge. .

. bringing the Long March to an end. That man was Xi Jinping's father.

In the end, fewer than 8,000 of the original marchers survived. Even though thousands died on the Long March from starvation and fighting and disease. .

. Mao's leadership was credited with saving the Red Army from total annihilation. And he became the de facto head of the party as well as the military.

. . entrusted with rebuilding the army to take on the Nationalist forces for total control of China.

“Wherever and however. . .

the Red Troops move into battle. . .

they spread the glory of Mao Zedong. ” This is a good stopping point in the story to talk about how power in the Chinese Communist Party or CCP works. Officially, the highest level of authority is a group called the Central Committee and is responsible for all of the party's major policy decisions.

Within the Central Committee is a select group of officials called the Political Bureau or Politburo. In most Communist parties, like that of the former Soviet Union. .

. the Politburo represents the most powerful members of the party besides the General Secretary. But the Chinese Communist Party has a key distinction that makes it unique.

It has one more even smaller selection of top officials who ultimately have the final say. An elite class of Politburo members called the Politburo Standing Committee. This group, which includes the General Secretary holds supreme control over the Central Committee dictates the will of the party and is in full control of the Central Military Commission which oversees China's defense.

Mao's promotion during the Long March landed him here in the highest position of the military and the Politburo Standing Committee. Even though he was considered the de facto head of the party when the Long March ended in 1935. .

. he officially became head of the party in 1943. With both the party and the military under his control.

. . Mao began to exploit the system to ensure he remained at the top for the rest of his life.

At Mao's first National Congress as the official party leader in 1945. . .

the party introduced a resolution that brought his influence to a whole new level. They unified the party around a single understanding of its history. .

. and declared Mao's political ideology later called Mao Tse-Tung Thought or Maoism. .

. as the unquestioned guiding principle of the Chinese Communist Party. Basically, Mao's ideas or policy decisions could no longer be challenged by anyone.

It was here he unveiled his equivalent at the time of the Politburo Standing Committee. The four other top party leaders. .

. all long marchers deeply loyal to Mao. Like Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai.

. . who would go on to hold some of the most powerful positions in the future government.

Four years later, Mao declared final victory for the Communists in a decades long Chinese civil war and established a new country: The People's Republic of China, or PRC. “Mao Tse-tung, once a lowly party worker. .

. now assumed the stature of a dominant figure in all of Eastern Asia. ” But winning a revolution isn't the same as running a country.

Because now that you're running a country there's all these other things you have to do like deliver the mail and like build a dam and stuff like that. You can't possibly have the party do all these things. So the party set up a government that would take the policy decisions made by the Politburo Standing Committee and figure out a way to make them a reality.

And so it evolved to a system where. . .

the party would make all the important decisions. . .

and especially the Politburo Standing Committee. Then, as it is today. .

. many of these decisions would go to the State Council. So the State Council was the highest decision-making body on the state side, led by the Premier of China.

The Premier of China, by the way, is almost always a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. One way Mao kept a tight grip on power over the years was by promoting those loyal to him to top positions in the party in government. Whether they had government experience or not.

For example, Zhou Enlai. . .

the former party leader who helped Mao rise to power during the Long March. . .

became China's first premier. The advantage of that is that they could never challenge him. The disadvantage of that is they didn't know what they were doing and so administration suffered.

. . policy outcomes suffered.

Long March survivors often became party elites under Mao. Xi Jinping's father, for example, was appointed Secretary General of the State Council. .

. and as the son of a Long Marcher young Xi was given the informal title of Princeling. Mao succeeded in never giving up his power during his lifetime.

His unchecked policies resulted in massive famines and widespread persecution that cost between 40 and 80 million lives over a span of decades. . .

and culminated in the disastrous Cultural Revolution. A violent final attempt from Mao to consolidate his power and force loyalty to the practice of Maoism. The idea was to make himself and his ideas eternal.

The way he viewed communist figureheads like Lenin and Marx before him. Anyone that didn't fall in line with Mao’s ideology was publicly humiliated. .

. impoverished. .

. excluded from society, and, in many cases executed. Either at the hands of the army.

. . or by a militant youth group obsessed with enforcing Maoism: The Red Guards.

[cheering] Even those closest to the dictator weren’t safe from his purges during the Cultural Revolution. High level officials including members of the Politburo Standing Committee and Long Marchers. .

. were removed from their positions. Liu Shaoqi was denounced as a traitor and died while imprisoned under harsh conditions.

Mao also removed the Chief of Staff of the Army and replaced him with a Maoist. . .

leaving no one left to oppose him in the military. Mao's handpicked successor who always appeared loyally by his side in photos and propaganda posters died under mysterious circumstances when his plane crashed as he was fleeing to the Soviet Union. Mao later denounced him as a traitor.

He denounced Xi's father, too. This is a photo of Xi senior being restrained and publicly criticized by the Red Guards at the height of the Cultural Revolution. He would remain a prisoner in Beijing for 8 years following this.

With his father purged. . .

Xi Jinping, 15 at the time was expelled from his elite school in Beijing and sent to work in the countryside. He had to live in a cave and do hard manual labor. His food was barely enough for a growing young person.

And Chairman Mao was responsible for all of it. But then. .

. Mao died. The Cultural Revolution ended.

His successor was Deng Xiaoping. . .

one of the Politburo Standing Committee members who was removed from power during the Cultural Revolution. Who just before Mao died. .

. started making a promise to fellow exiled party veterans. Deng Xiaoping signaled credibly.

. . to all the surviving Long Marchers that he wanted to rehabilitate people.

So when Mao died, they all supported the rehabilitation of Deng. And as soon as Deng was rehabilitated he went ahead and rehabilitated all these people. With experienced leadership back in place the party needed to figure out how to prevent something like this.

. . from ever happening again.

In order to undo Mao's cult of personality. . .

the party introduced a second historical resolution in 1981. It condemned periods of Mao's rule. .

. and emphasized a renewed commitment to collective leadership. .

. vowing to oppose the consolidation of power around one person moving forward. The successors to Mao didn't want a dictatorship.

So they divided up these positions and put them in the hands of different people. Like Mao, Deng kept tight control over the Central Military Commission as its chairman. .

. and held a leadership position in the government. But was never head of state.

He never held the highest position in the party either. Instead, he set up a new advisory commission and served as its chairman. .

. which allowed him to influence the party's direction. .

. without positioning himself directly on top of it. This allowed a power sharing structure while still making Deng the de facto leader of China until he stepped down in 1989.

. . following the Army's massacre of students protesting in Tiananmen Square.

“A protester suddenly ran into the middle of the street and in front of the oncoming tanks. ” “Anger at Deng Xiaoping, the entire Chinese government. .

. it had the real feeling of rebellion in the streets of Beijing. ” “People want to fight the military out of their city.

” Deng and his ideology which moved away from Maoism, set a precedent of sharing power. He opened up China and established economic ties with these countries. .

. and was the first PRC leader to visit the US in 1979. “Today, we take another step in the historic.

. . normalization of relations which we have begun this year.

” Deng’s reforms became the foundation for decades of economic prosperity that led China to having the world's second largest economy over time. . .

and being on the verge of becoming the world's next superpower. “Communism is creating a consumer society. ” “Also reminds you that the standard of living in China is going up.

” “Here. . .

capitalism rules. ” One thing power sharing did lead to. .

. was a lot of policy innovation and then some degree of decentralization. And both of these things helped China's economy enormously.

Which is why this period of economic growth and reform stretching over roughly 30 years is known as the Deng era. Whether he wanted to or not, Deng kept his word. .

. and never tried to consolidate absolute power around himself. He did end up sharing power.

And that set the stage for power sharing in the party. . .

until the rise of Xi Jinping. So what was Xi doing all this time? [contemplative music] When Mao died in 1976 Xi was back in Beijing studying communist philosophy.

. . even though the Chinese Communist Party had ruined Xi's family.

. . He had joined it.

Just as the Cultural Revolution was winding down. But why? Personally, he might begrudge Chairman Mao for doing all this terrible things to his family.

. . but I think at this time he also recognized that in the system of the Chinese Communist Party power is everything.

Without power, you're nothing. But in order to get that power. .

. Xi did something unexpected. He left Beijing.

As his competitors were fiercely competing with each other in the 1980s and 1990s. He sort of got out of their way. .

. and went to the provinces. He took positions in party leadership in rural, poor provinces all around China.

. . where there were no other princelings to compete with.

First, in Hebei, a poor rural province outside of Beijing. . .

where he easily reached the top spot as party secretary. Then in Fujian, a heavily militarized region where top members of the army were stationed. He moved up the ranks to party secretary here, too.

Before becoming the governor of the province a few years later. After making powerful friends in the military. .

. Xi went here. .

. where he once again assumes the office of party secretary. .

. and grew his support on the civilian side. This strategy of moving around didn't just give Xi a leg up in areas where competition was slim.

It also gave him credibility. . .

as a humble, hard working party leader. . .

and he cultivated a growing group of supporters who would come back into play years down the line. It was his last stop and his shortest one that ultimately got him back to Beijing. A brief stint in the top party spot in Shanghai in 2007.

. . where he rehabilitated the city's image following a high-level corruption scandal.

Xi developed a reputation here as a prudent leader who toed the party line. Just 7 months later, he finally returned to Beijing. .

. having been promoted to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. Basically, the people who were deciding on top leadership at the time they wanted a Princeling.

But they didn't want a princeling who was too ambitious or too strong. So Xi Jinping he was seen as less ambitious because he was willing to go to the countryside and work in lower-level positions. When Xi emerged as the 2007 National Congress and leadership unveiling.

. . he was one of the 9 most powerful men in the country.

It was at this moment that his strategic climb. . .

over 17 long years in the countryside paid off. Big time. When the General Secretary stepped down in 2012.

. . Xi emerged at the top spot in the party as China's leader.

Now the elite son of a former revolutionary turned exiled peasant. . .

turned party darling. . .

was poised to seize control of everything. Like Mao, Xi Jinping believes that rallying around a single figure is crucial to the party's survival. Rather than the collective leadership Deng’s reforms had normalized.

So pretty much as soon as Xi Jinping came to power. He started getting rid of people. “The news.

. . four top officials removed for taking bribes was announced on state TV.

” “Xi Jinping has just sacked his foreign minister. ” “Just sacked his defense minister. ” “He sacked a whole lot of other people at the top of the military establishment.

” “The former security czar has not been seen in public for more than a year. ” “The nvestigation against Zhou allows the Chinese president to remove those opposed to his reforms. ” He launched a major anti-corruption campaign.

. . as soon as he took power in late 2012, early ‘13.

. . which led to the arrests of hundreds of senior-level officials as well as military officers.

These purges targeted Xi's rivals in the party. . .

whose vacant positions he filled with his own supporters. After this massive purge. .

. Xi Jinping was in very tight control over both the party and also the Chinese military. .

. thereby making him the most powerful leader of the Chinese Communist Party since the death of Mao. That pattern continued in the second term where he unveiled 5 new faces of the Politburo Standing Committee.

. . three of them with close personal ties to Xi.

In 2021, Xi pulled off one of his most dramatic acts yet. . .

to enforce his influence over the Chinese Communist Party. He introduced a third historic resolution that unified the party's ideology around one clear line of thinking: Xi Jinping Thought. Xi's personal political ideology.

. . would now be the core in the party's thinking.

. . political stance and action.

Basically, Xi Jinping's ideas could no longer be challenged. And they weren't for many years. During Xi's first 10 years in power the size of China's economy more than doubled.

So did average individual income. So did military spending. Under his leadership.

. . China's presence on the world stage has grown too.

Positioning the rising superpower to take on the role of an aggressor, externally. Reasserting claims over parts of the South China Sea Intimidating Taiwan and Tibet and stripping democratic process in Hong Kong. Inside its own borders strict Internet censorship and surveillance are widespread.

. . and oppression of Uyghurs.

. . a mostly minority Muslim ethnic group.

. . is marked by human rights abuses.

But it wasn't until Covid that Xi saw the first real challenge to his authority. “Anger in China is growing. ” “Video showing protester is in Xinjiang.

. . fed up with China's zero Covid rules.

” “The boldest public challenge yet for leader Xi Jinping. ” With these protests all around the country. .

. and the party's reputation in peril. Xi reversed the failed policy.

But is now faced with a shaky economy. . .

and cracks in his unchecked authority. It was just weeks before the widespread protests at the 20th National Congress in 2022. .

. that Xi walked out in the leading position a third time. He had already locked in the presidency for another five years.

. . and unveiled a Politburo Standing Committee completely packed with those loyal to him.

After removing the final senior members of the party that had ties to his predecessor. Now there is no one left in party or military leadership whose ideology differs from Xi. I don't think anyone can push him out at this point.

I think Xi will be the most powerful leader in China. . .

as long as he's alive and conscious. Thanks so much for watching this episode of Atlas. So many teammates worked on this piece.

A small army of editors, animators, and researchers helped bring this complicated story into focus. I especially like to shout out Rajaa. .

. one of the key researchers on this piece. .

. who conducted an incredible interview with our expert Victor Shi. It takes a lot of resources to make these videos but we publish our work free to watch here because we think journalism should be accessible to everyone.

If you believe in keeping journalism free and want to support our continuing work go to vox. com/give-now to make a contribution. Thanks again.