Political Freedom

Imagine this, in China there are absolutely no books on the life or thoughts of the likely next Chinese 'Red' Emperor Xi Jinping.

 

Xi Jinping - Top Role

 

If a Chinese person wants to find out about the career of the man who will rule for at least the next decade (and have influence over the following one), then they will have to get the information from Western Internet sources.

 

Think about that fact for a moment. It tells you all you need to know about the real political system that rules one fifth of the human race. So on the odd chance any Chinese ever land on this page, here's some facts:

Political Career:

• He is the second son of Xi Zhongxun, one of the founders of the Communist guerrilla movement in Shaanxi Province in northern China and former Vice-Premier .... so a heredity privileged member of the party.
• When Xi was 10, his father was purged and sent to work in a factory in Luoyang. Xi was 15 when his father was jailed in 1968, during the Cultural Revolution.
• From 1975 to 1979, Xi studied chemical engineering at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University. From 1979 to 1982 he served as secretary for his father's former subordinate Geng Biao, the then vice premier and Secretary-General of the Central Military Commission.
• He rose through the Communist Ranks from 1971 and  Xi's career is notable in that during his regional tenures, he was never implicated in any serious scandals, nor did he face serious political opposition.
• He is expected to be made current Paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. this year.

Personal Life:

• He was born in June 1953 in Beijing and is, by Chinese convention, a native of Fuping County, Shaanxi.

Xi Jinping and father Xi Zhongxun

•  Xi married Ke Lingling in the early 1980s. After about 3 years, they were divorced, due to personality clashes.
• Xi married the beautiful and famous Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan (彭丽媛) in 1987, his second marriage. Peng Liyuan, a household name in China, was much better known to the public than Xi until his political elevation. The couple frequently live apart due to their largely separate lives. They are sometimes considered China's emerging star political couple.

Some Things Are the Same - Trophy Wives

• They have a daughter named Xi Mingze, who enrolled as a freshman at the US Harvard University in the Fall of 2010 under a pseudonym.
• Xi holds doctorates in chemical engineering and political science.
• Peng has described Xi as frugal, hard working and down to earth. "When he comes home, I've never thought of it as though there's some leader in the house. In my eyes, he's just my husband."
• Xi was described in a 2011 Washington Post article by those who know him as "pragmatic, serious, cautious, hard-working, down to earth and low-key. They also say he is a problem-solver and a leader seemingly uninterested in the trappings of high office."
• He is also noted for his liking of Hollywood films like Saving Private Ryan and The Departed. The Guardian Newspaper noted that "perhaps more surprisingly" he has also praised the independent film maker, Jia Zhangke.

Aims:

• Personal power and consolidation - may try to alter constitution to stay in power longer than two terms.
• Reinvigorate states role in economy via the Communist Party. So no reforms that could undermine state-owned enterprises and stricter controls on Chinese businessmen, even though a former premier, Wen Jiabao described the economy as “unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable”.
  
• Project China's power and influence abroad.
  

 

Now think on this ...... for publishing these simple facts, and making a very minor comment on his marriage to a beautiful woman, I would face at best a long discussion with the secret police, and very possibly a prison sentence for 're-education', if I was China. 
 
Anyone reading this probably has cause to be grateful to be born in a country that's comparatively free ..... remember that when someone proposes taking some of that freedom away from you in the name of  multiculturalism, economic protection or political correctness.