Xi's Moves

President Xi Jinping has charmed his people and outwitted his critics. Outside China, he has kept everyone, including India, guessing

- Danny Geevarghese

In the spring of 2013, when the rotund Xi Jinping took over as president of the People’s Republic of China, he was relatively unknown outside the mainland. The joke in Beijing then was that he was known as the husband of Peng Liyuan, one of China’s most popular folk singers, and the son of Xi Zhongxun, a first generation communist revolutionary and one of the founding fathers of the republic, along with the legendary Mao Zedong.

By the end of his first term, he had made a name for himself, unleashing a ferocious campaign against corruption that fuelled many prominent names in the party and the military, and giving rise to what has come to be known as ‘Xi Jinping thought’ or ‘Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era’. He has also flexed his muscles outside China, keeping neighbours, especially India, on tenterhooks (read Doklam).

President Xi and his Premier Li Keqiang kept their hands steady on the wheel as the country sailed through some turbulent economic waters and international crises, especially with some sabre rattling in the South China Sea. He also faced a mini crisis at home with the volume rising about how polluted the country was becoming. In the year he became president, the Beijing air was a soupy grey with the smoke and gasoline fumes and the sky remained hidden for days, especially in winter.

He managed to fix a lot of the latter. This last winter, the air was much more breathable, and locals say there have been more blue sky days this season than in the previous ten.