Xi Jinping (/ʃi dʒɪnˈpɪŋ/ shee jin-
PING; Chinese: 习近平; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) since
2012, and President of the
People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013. Xi is the paramount leader of China, the most prominent political leader in China, since
2012.
The son of Chinese Communist veteran Xi Zhongxun, he was exiled to rural Yanchuan County as a
teenager following his
father's purge during the Cultural Revolution, and lived in a cave in the village of Liangjiahe, where he joined the CCP and worked as the party secretary. After studying chemical engineering at Tsinghua University as a "Worker-
Peasant-Soldier student", Xi rose through the ranks politically in China's coastal provinces. Xi was Governor of Fujian from 1999 to 2002, before becoming Governor and Party Secretary of neighbouring Zhejiang from 2002 to
2007. Following the dismissal of the Party Secretary of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, Xi was transferred to replace him for a brief
period in 2007. He subsequently joined the Politburo Standing Committee and served as first secretary of the Central Secretariat in October 2007. In 2008 he was designated as Hu Jintao's presumed successor as paramount leader; to that end, Xi was appointed Vice President of the
People's Republic of China and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission. He officially received the title of "leaders...
