Xi Jinping, (1953 – )

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, he has served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC, Chairman of the Military Commission of the CPC, President of the PRC and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the PRC.

Xi Jinping was born on June 15, 1953 in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province, China. He joined the CPC in January 1974. Xi Jinping graduated from the major of Marxist Theory and Ideological and Political Education, attached to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, in the Tsinghua University, earned an in-service postgraduate degree and earned the Doctor of Law degree in 1979. Between 1969-1975, he entered the work force and worked in the Liang Jiahe Brigade of Wen'an Yi Commune in Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province, where he served as secretary of the Party branch of the village. Between 1975-1979, Xi Jinping studied basic organic synthesis at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University. After graduation, he served as secretary in the General Office of the State Council and the General Office of the Central Military Commission. Between 1982-1985, Xi Jinping served as deputy secretary and secretary of the county Party committee in Zhengding County. Between 1985-1988, he has served in Fujian Province. Between 1988-1990, when he was the Party Secretary of the Ningde Prefectural Committee, he devoted himself to shaking off poverty and leading the farmers to get rich and speeded up development in eastern Fujian province. Throughout his political career he carried out in-depth investigation and research, emphasized the spirit of “Dripping Water Through Stone”— “dripping water on a rock to wear it down”, and put forward the practice of implementing “Four Grassroots Initiatives”, which encouraged leading officials to investigate complaints and listen to ideas at the grassroots level; to go down to the grassroots to handle official business on the spot; to work with the grassroots to conduct research and investigations; and to go down to the grassroots to publicize the Party's guiding principles and policies. Xi Jinping strongly advocated for these initiatives in 1988, while he was working in Ningde, Fujian Province. This which embodied rich experience and philosophical thinking of: upholding dialectical unity between theoretical guidance and practical exploration, and enabling positive interaction between theoretical and practical innovation, in an effort to develop Marxism. Between 1990-1995, Xi Jinping served as Secretary of Fuzhou Municipal Committee. Between 1995-2002, he served as Deputy Secretary of Fujian Provincial Party Committee, and as acting governor of the Fujian Province. He was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee at the 15th Party Congress in 1997 and as a member of the Central Committee at the 16th Party Congress in 2002, and served as Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress and Acting Governor from 2002 to 2007. During this period, he published 232 short articles in Zhejiang Daily, emphasising the need for Party leaders and cadres to practise the fine style of seeking truth from facts and serving the people wholeheartedly. From March to October 2007, he was Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee.

In 2007, he was elected as a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, a member of the Standing Committee and Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee at the 17th Party Congress. Since the 18th Party Congress in 2012, he has served as General Secretary of the Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China. The Sixth Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee formally proposed "the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core", establishing Xi Jinping's position as the leading core of the Party Central Committee and the leading core of the entire Party.

In October 2017, the 19th Party Congress established Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as a guiding ideology that the Party must adhere to in the long term and wrote it into the revised Constitution of the Communist Party of China.

Xi Jinping’s main works include The Governance of China by Xi Jinping, The Governance of China by Xi Jinping (Volume 2), Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in all Respects, Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Comprehensively Deepening Reform, Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Comprehensively Governing the Country According to Law, Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Comprehensive and Strict Governance of the Party, Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Socialist Economic Construction, Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Socialist Political Construction, Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Socialist Cultural Construction, and Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Socialist Social Construction, Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on the Construction of Socialist Ecological Civilization and so forth.