CHINA: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit throws spotlight on Vice President Xi Jinping

Record ID: 1377462

  • Title: CHINA: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit throws spotlight on Vice President Xi Jinping
  • Date: 23rd August 2011
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (FILE - 2011) (REUTERS) NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS IN PROGRESS HU, WEN AND OFFICIALS WALKING IN XI VOTING PHOTOGRAPHER FILMING CHINESE NATIONAL EMBLEM HU AND WEN WALKING OUT
  • Embargoed: 7th September 2011 12:33
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China, China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADUTZXNPZZPHH80U7PHSXBURTG
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to China has cast a spotlight on his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, as the world's attention turns to China's next leader.
    The son of reformist former vice premier and parliament vice-chairman Xi Zhongxun, Xi Jinping has long been marked out as the likely successor to President Hu Jintao, who must retire from running the Party in late 2012 and from the presidency in early 2013.
    His appearances mark the start of that lengthy transition to power for Xi, though Hu could yet retain some power if he holds on to the chairmanship of the military commission as did his predecessor.
    Ahead of the tricky leadership handover, Xi, 58, has made regular shows of loyalty to Party tradition, just as Hu did on his way to the top, and showcasing his links to the Party's revolutionary past.
    Xi is regarded as a "princeling", one of the privileged sons and daughters whose parents served as comrades in arms with revolutionary founder Mao Zedong.
    Xi's father was an associate of Mao.
    Xi has shown himself to be an able political operator in his own right, professor of the International Relations Department at China's prestigious Peking University, Yang Zhaohui said.
    "There are different voices within the Chinese Communist Party, including left-wings and right-wings, and conservatives and radicals. The conflict between the different groups are intense. Under such circumstances, a leader like Xi Jinping is very appropriate because everybody seems to be able to accept him," said Yang.
    Some analysts say his occasional blunt voice towards the West could be a hindrance. During a visit to Mexico early last year, he dropped his guard for a moment to growl at international expectations and demands piling up at Beijing's door.
    Xi's mask was back in place when he met Biden, and there are no signs that he will sharply depart from the foreign policy of Hu.
    Others say he will be more open due to his father, who was more sympathetic to liberal changes and advocated Deng's political reform.
    Yang said he may appear to be a hard-liner, but is not likely to sway too much from current policy.
    "I believe that it is unlikely for him to resort to a totally different direction diplomatically and take a hostile and tough line and cause big friction. It is not in his political character. But at the same time, because he is a princeling, is of a red (political) bloodline and because of the basis of his knowledge, even though he was exposed to new knowledge and culture for 30 years after the reform, in overall he is relatively conservative," Yang added.
    Xi Jinping went to work in the poor northwest Chinese countryside as a "sent-down youth" during the chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution and became a rural commune official.
    He later studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing, an elite school where Hu also studied. Xi later gained a doctorate in Marxist theory from Tsinghua.
    Xi shot to national fame in the early 1980s as Party boss of a rural county in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing. He had rare access to then national Party chief Hu Yaobang in the leadership compound, Zhongnanhai, west of the Forbidden City.
    In 2002, he moved to neighbouring Zhejiang province, where he became Communist Party secretary.
    He was then promoted to running Shanghai, after a corruption scandal felled the big commercial city's former leadership in 2006.
    In October 2007, he was promoted to the Party's Standing Committee -- the ruling inner-circle -- marking him out for a place in the leadership that will succeed Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao from late 2012.
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