Of all the relationships Donald Trump will have to manage as president of the United States, perhaps none will be more important than that with Xi Jinping. To prepare, the next occupant of the White House could do worse than read two incisive new books about the man who wants to make China great again.
During his election campaign, Trump, who is expected to be inaugurated on January 20, has had a lot to say about Xi. He bragged that Xi respects him because I'm crazy. After he was shot at a campaign rally in July, he said Xi had written me a nice note. On another occasion, he called Xi fierce and very intelligent.
There is, however, much more to learn about Xi, the only world leader whose power could be said to rival that of the American president. The impression that emerges from these two deeply researched books is of a surprisingly complex and multi-layered personality. Xi is a strong man who nevertheless suffered deep trauma during his childhood. He is a pragmatist who nevertheless retains respect for ideology. He and his father were cruelly persecuted by the communist authorities, but he remains a party loyalist.
The first part of The Red Emperor by Michael Sheridan has even a reader not trained in psychoanalysis wondering about the kind of lifelong imprint that trauma can inflict. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), a teenage Xi experienced more than a dozen wrestling sessions, which were violent public humiliations against people seen as class enemies. At times he was also incarcerated, starved and infested with fleas.
One night, a desperate Xi [escaped]writes Sheridan. He ran through the rainy streets of Beijing to get home. He knocked on the door, hoping for food and dry clothes. But his mother was so terrified for her own safety and that of Jinping's siblings that she not only turned him away, but also reported his escape to authorities.
Her mother didn't act out of insensitivity, Sheridan says. These were the actions of an insider. Knowing that her home was being watched, she also knew that the punishment for helping her son would be certain. He ran away into the rain, crying.
This episode is one of many recounted in Sheridans' excellent book, the most vivid and compelling biography of Xi published to date. A veteran journalist with extensive experience in Hong Kong and China, Sheridan acknowledges his debt to Howard Zhang, former head of BBC News' China service, who acted as lead researcher on Chinese sources for the book.
While Sheridans' book recounts the founding chapters of Xi's life and career, Kevin Rudd traces the transformation of China's ideological worldview since he came to power in 2012. These changes have upended much of politics, economics and Chinese foreign policy, Rudd says in On Xi Jinping.
In a nutshell, Xi's ideological beliefs could be described as Marxist nationalism, says Rudd, a former Australian prime minister, current Australian ambassador to the United States and a longtime China expert.
In detail, this means three big things. Xi brought Chinese politics to the Leninist left with an emphasis on centralization of decision-making. He brought economics to the Marxist left, emphasizing the role of state-owned enterprises and regulation. Finally, Xi's foreign policy has shifted toward the nationalist right, making Beijing more confrontational and assertive.
But what experiences shaped Xi's mindset? Sheridan devotes his attention to his father, Xi Zhongxun. The elder Xi had been an associate of Chairman Mao Zedong and rose to the rank of vice premier before being purged in 1962. He was imprisoned, forced into self-criticism and assigned to work in a tractor factory . In total, he spent 16 years in the political wilderness.
Following his father's ostracism, Xi found himself banished to a poor village in the countryside for seven years of forced labor alongside peasants.
This meant that by the time he reached the age of 21, Xi had experienced great privilege as the princely son of a high official. He also experienced public humiliation, persecution and years of poverty in rural exile, separated from parental love. When his father finally obtained his political rehabilitation in 1978, Xi was once again adopted by the party that had shunned him.
Sheridan wisely avoids cod psychology diagnoses. But the rest of The Red Emperor There is no doubt that Xi is a leader obsessed with both the capricious nature of power and the assurance it provides to those who control it.
The most dramatic chapter involves Xi's 2014 purge of Zhou Yongkang, the highest-ranking official toppled in a corruption scandal since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. As the man in charge of China's vast security agency , Zhou was a member of the Politburo, the pinnacle of Chinese power.
After his fall, a state newspaper described Zhou, 71, as a crazed erotomaniac with a string of mistresses who once had sex in an underground car park with an exceptionally beautiful TV presenter. But such weariness distracted from more systemic questions: How could the Chinese Communist Party harbor a man at its highest level who was so grotesquely corrupt?
When Zhou was sentenced to life in prison, details of his affairs were revealed. Assets worth more than $10 billion were seized from his estate, including 300 apartments and houses, 60 cars, gold hoards, vintage alcohol, cash, jewelry, antiques, paintings and wads of foreign currency. The Zhou affair stunned China and showed that Xi was not a leader to be underestimated.
Rudd's book adds a wealth of context to what drives Xi's grim determination. The former Australian Prime Minister is one of the rare Westerners to have met him several times. Fluent in Chinese and having worked at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, Rudd completed a doctorate on Xi Jinping's ideological worldview in 2022 at the University of Oxford.
According to his analysis, one of Xi's formative experiences was the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a historic moment that resounded through the corridors of power in Beijing as a tragedy (a view shared elsewhere by Vladimir Putin). According to Xi, the reasons why China's huge communist neighbor has foundered have a lot to do with the lack of respect he gives to Marxist ideology.
An important reason was that the struggle in the field of ideology was extremely intense, completely denying the history of the Soviet Union, denying the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, denying Lenin, denying Stalin, creating a historical nihilism and confused thinking. according to official Chinese documents attributed to Xi.
It’s a cautionary tale! » adds Xi.
Thus, the mini-vogue among Sinologists in recent years to characterize Xi as a transactional pragmatist with few (if any) ideological convictions is misguided, Rudd's book makes clear. This should be a useful thing for the new US administration to keep in mind.
Marxist nationalism, as Rudd characterizes it, should be the animating philosophy for the remainder of Xi's term. But what does this mean, in practical terms?
The answer is that Xi sees himself as having a historic mission to create a new era of Chinese pre-eminence. He will use his all-powerful Leninist party to reinforce his goal. If he encounters resistance at home or abroad, a fierce struggle will be waged to overcome it. Trump's new team has been warned.
About Xi Jinping: How Xi's Marxist nationalism is shaping China and the world by Kevin Rudd, OUP $26.99/$34.99, 624 pages
The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and his new China by Michael Sheridan, Press Title 25, 368 pages
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