Xi Jinping

Reviews / Votes

As a pioneering academic work on Xi Jinping's life and political career, Alfred Chan's book will be one of the definitive guides to the most important political leader in China since Mao. This well-researched book draws on rich data, wide ranging English and Chinese-language literature, and social science analysis to interpret what Xi's reign means for China's rise and its place in the world. * Lynette Ong, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto * Chan deftly traces Xi Jinping's career from earliest days to the pinnacle of power, seeing his ascension as the fruition of a deliberate grooming process by the Party. Chan argues that, although he often characterized as an absolute leader, Xi's power is in fact constrained by the need to depend on others for expertise, pushback to his ambitious reforms, and the realities of countervailing international forces. * June Dreyer, Professor of Political Science, University of Miami * This book fills a crying need for a comprehensive understanding of the current Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the changing context in which he has emerged as the supreme leader in China. It is the first comprehensive study of Xi's life history, political career, and major issues in the ongoing debate in which Professor Alfred Chan offers new perspectives that challenge many of the conventional views in understanding Chinese politics. * Sujian Guo, Professor of Political Science, San Francisco State University and Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Chinese Political Science * Alfred Chan's prodigious tour de force on the career of Xi Jinping relies on extensive empirical evidence and multi-disciplinary analysis to go beyond prevailing interpretations to persuasively characterize China's current powerful leader in more complex terms. Among salient and sometimes conflicting attributes, Xi is depicted as a survivor of early adversity with an iron will to succeed; a strong and decisive leader meeting widespread demands of his time; a staunch Leninist committed to communist party rule; and an impatient change agent pushing ambitious and politically risky programs at home and abroad. Even those disagreeing with Chan's overall assessment will want to examine the evidence and reasoning in this impressive volume. * Robert Sutter, Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University * Richly researched and actively engaged with scholarly and policy debates, Chan uses the career of Xi Jinping as a window on Chinese political history as well as a lens for understanding Chinese politics today. A valuable contribution to our collective effort to "get China right." * Timothy Cheek, Professor and Louis Cha Chair in Chinese Research,Institute of Asian Research in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and Department of History, University of British Columbia * Through prodigious research and judicious analysis, Alfred Chan has produced a biography of Xi Jinping that is almost encyclopedia-like in its comprehensiveness. Chan's book is a most important and valuable corrective to the hagiographical treatment of Xi in PRC media as well as previous biographies in English. He shows how a combination of personal attributes, the broader context of China's development since the 1980s, and a confluence of contingencies brought Xi Jinping to his current position as arguably the single most powerful and historically significant person of the early twenty-first century. * Michael Szonyi, Director, Fairbank Center, Harvard University * Chan provides a comprehensive analysis of Xi's policymaking and leadership, preventing an oversimplification of issues and encouraging a more nuanced understanding of contemporary China's political and power dynamics...a highly recommended read. * Mandira Bagwandeen, South African Journal Of International Affairs * The most complete account of Xi's career, and it presents its findings in an evenhanded and nuanced way. * Kerry Brown, China Journal, , Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at Kings College, London * A tremendous contribution to our study of Chinese politics. * Joseph Fewsmith, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Boston University and author of Rethinking Chinese Politics (2021) * Not only a great source of information about Xi but also the broader political development of China in the past 40 years. It's also remarkably balanced, reasonably argued and full of detailed evidence. Balance, reason and evidence are so frequently lacking in western understandings of China, which are often driven by ideology and a Cold War mentality. This book is a great scholarly achievement. * James Miller, Professor of Humanities and Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Initiatives, Duke Kunshan University *