Xi Jinping

Director & actor · born 15 June 1953 · Beijing, China

Xi Jinping (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician and statesman who has been the paramount leader of China since 2012. He serves as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Party’s Central Military Commission, positions he assumed in 2012, and became president of the People’s Republic of China and chairman of the state military commission in 2013. He is widely regarded as the leading figure of China’s fifth generation of leadership.

Xi was born in Beijing as the son of Xi Zhongxun, a veteran revolutionary figure, and Qi Xin. During the Cultural Revolution, his father was purged, and Xi was sent to the rural village of Liangjiahe in Shaanxi province as part of the “sent-down youth” movement. There, he lived in a cave dwelling known as a yaodong, performed manual labor, and later became a local party secretary. After several unsuccessful attempts, he joined the CCP. He later studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua University as a worker-peasant-soldier student.

Where to start: To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb (2023).