Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping - born 1 June 1953, son of Xi Zhongxun, he is the presumed heir to replace current president Hu Jintao. He currently resides as the most senior member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China, the current Vice- President to Hu Jintao, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, President of the Central Party School, and ranks as the 6th member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Due to his current standing within the party, and he past political views, these are the reasons why many feel he will replace Hu Jintao as soon as next year. It seems that from a young age Xi was destined to rise to power, his father was a leader in a communist movement in his providence and was the leader of the communist’s propaganda department, and moved onto become the vice-premiere. As Xi grew up he attended university at Tsinghua University and studied chemical engineering, although some controversy surrounds his earlier education as it seems that records for his high school graduation could not be found, and it seems as though he received his doctorate without first completing his masters. His first governmental job came in the form as serving as a secretary for a high ranking official Geng Biao, who had worked under his father. After joining the communist party in 1974 he was moved to Zhengding County in Hebei to act as its parties secretary, later being moved to Shaanxi, Fujian and Zhejiang providences during his career. As the years passed, he slowly climbed the ranks of the communist party and advanced his career, and in 2000 was promoted to the Governor of Fujian. While his rise has been steady, it has not come with out controversy, and was caught up in the Yuanhua scandal. While he is applauded for his free market approach and enticing private investors to china, it was these opinions that put him in front of a disciplinary council as he had to defend and explain his role in this economic scandal. What many contribute to his rise, is that while in the Zhejiang providence, his economic views came to the forefront as this providence has become one of the most economical influential parts of china in the recent years, lending credence to the ideas and aspects that Xi implemented and engineered. With one of the most influential statistics being that his providence showed a steady 14% economic growth per year. In 2006 the party leader in Shanghai was dismissed due to a funding issue of his own, the position was offered to Xi, and he took it. Another reason why he was called up was because during his time in Zhejiang he took a strong stand against corrupt officials, and this brought him additional publicity to the people of china. Once he came to Shanghai, he aligned his views more with that of the central government, and shied away from any and all controversial policies. In 2007 Xi was appointed to the 9 member Politburo Standing Committee, and in 2008 his resume was further bolstered to add Vice-President of the People’s Republic of China, and it has become clear in the last year that he will succeed Hu Jintao as General Secretary and President in the next two years.