Profile: Xi Jinping and His Era “Spas” Chinese Screen: Foreign Media

On November 17, China’s state news agency, Xinhua, published a 12,000-word feature on Chinese President Xi Jinping. The article comprehensively documented Xi’s personal achievements. It has attracted worldwide media attention. Let’s see what has interested them most.

According to the Diplomat, the article has dominated all headlines with the most eye-catching of formats.

The article introduced Xi’s great achievements in a number of fields, including in anti-corruption, party-building, military, foreign policy, and poverty alleviation.

For example, in the field of anti-corruption, the article claims that Xi is CPC core formed during the ‘great struggle’.

Specifically, to demonstrate Xi’s “far-reaching and relentless” clampdown on “big tigers” within the party, the article singled out six fallen senior officials — Zhou Yongkang (former member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau) ,  Bo Xilai (former top leader of Chongqing City), Guo Boxiong (former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission), Xu Caihou (another former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission) Sun Zhengcai (former top leader of Congqing City after Bo Xilai) and Ling Jihua (former chief of the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party). The article referred to the six as “officials with ‘iron hats’ — those who were considered powerful and not easily removed.”

The article also revealed that a total of 43 members and alternate members of the 18th CCP Central Committee (the political body that comprises the top CCP leaders) as well as nine members of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (the highest internal-control institution within the CCP that oversees anti-corruption campaign) have been investigated over the past five years under Xi’s anti-corruption campaign.

Not only did the article repeatedly laud Xi’s series of success since he took office, but even attributed his “great achievements” to his parents and his “red background.” The article said:

Xi also draws strength from his parents Xi Zhongxun and Qi Xin, both of whom participated in the revolution at young ages. In 1962, Xi Zhongxun’s 16 years of suffering from political persecution began. However, he never gave in to adversity and ultimately helped clear the names of others who were persecuted. When his father was wronged, Xi Jinping went through some tough times. In one of his letters to his father, Xi Jinping noted that even when trapped in hard times, Xi Zhongxun still held “unswerving faith in communism and belief in the Party’s greatness, correctness and glory.” 

“Your words and actions have pointed the correct direction for us to go forward,” he wrote.

Xi also recollected that, when he was five or six years old, his mother bought him picture books about Yue Fei, a patriotic military commander of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), and the story of how Yue’s mother tattooed four Chinese characters on his back to remind him of devoting himself to the country.

The article also employed some terms with special political meanings to portray Xi. For example, the article called Xi “architect of modernization for new era.”

The United Morning Post of Singapore reported that China’s state news agency Xinhua published a 12,000-word article, summarizing Chinese president Xi Jinping’s achievements in a number of fields. They described Xi Jinping as “a man who makes things happen” someone who was “CPC core, forged during the ’great struggle’”, a “world leader on the international stage”, and the “architect of modernization for a new era”.

Sources in Beijing said that people all around China have quickly set themselves to studying Xi Jinping Thought on Chinese Socialism for a New Era following the 19th National Congress of the CPC.

It was noted that People’s Daily also published an article focusing on ten stories about Xi, each of which revealed a facet of his character.

According to Reuters’ report, a workaholic keen swimmer with an extensive knowledge of foreign literature — China’s state news agency Xinhua on Friday cracked open the door to President Xi Jinping’s private life in an unusual and glowing profile.

The private lives of senior Chinese leaders have traditionally been shrouded in secrecy.

In a lengthy story published in Chinese and English in the early hours of Friday, Xinhua hailed Xi as the “unrivalled helmsman”.

While some of the anecdotes have previously been reported by state media – like his 2014 stroll around old Beijing alleyways during one of the city’s periodic smog crises – others were new.

Xi personally reviews every draft of major policy documents, sentence by sentence, Xinhua said.

“Sources close to him told Xinhua that all reports submitted to him, no matter how late in the evening, were returned with instructions the following morning.”

But he also “takes time out of his busy schedule to swim over 1,000 meters a time” it added.