What Ezra Klein talks about
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What Xi Jinping Wants
17 attributed claim occurrences Checked July 2026
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Xi Jinping has led the Chinese Communist Party since 2012.
Xi became general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2012 and has remained in that position.
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Xi Jinping has consolidated power to a degree very few observers expected.
Xi has secured a precedent-breaking third party term, sidelined rivals and concentrated authority to an extent widely described as unmatched in China since Mao.
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In the long term Xi wants China to be the preeminent world power, and in the near term he wants it to control Taiwan.
Xi has set goals for China to become a global leader by 2049 and repeatedly insists on unification with Taiwan. However, “preeminent world power” is an interpretation, and Xi has not publicly specified a near-term deadline for taking control of Taiwan.
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Kevin Rudd began his career as an Australian foreign-service officer and served in China, is fluent in Mandarin, and later became prime minister of Australia in the late 2000s.
Rudd was a diplomat from 1981 to 1988, including a Beijing posting, is documented as fluent in Mandarin, and served as prime minister from 2007 to 2010, returning briefly in 2013.
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During his rise, Kevin Rudd got to know Xi Jinping personally.
Rudd first met Xi in 1986 while serving at the Australian Embassy and subsequently held additional meetings with him, including substantive talks while Rudd was prime minister.
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After serving as prime minister, Rudd pursued a doctorate at Oxford and wrote his dissertation on Xi Jinping's ideology.
Oxford records show that Rudd received a DPhil in 2022 for a thesis titled “China's new Marxist nationalism: defining Xi Jinping's ideological worldview.”
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Rudd published his doctoral research as a book on Xi Jinping and also authored The Avoidable War.
Oxford University Press published Rudd's On Xi Jinping, which grew from his doctoral work, and he is also the author of the 2022 book The Avoidable War.
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Rudd recently served as Australia's ambassador to the United States and is now president of the Asia Society.
Rudd served as ambassador in Washington from March 2023 through March 2026 and took over as Asia Society president and CEO on March 31, 2026.
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Xi Jinping's father was purged, his family was humiliated and physically suffered, and Xi was sent to the countryside, where he lived in impoverished conditions for several years.
Xi Zhongxun was purged in 1962 and later imprisoned, while the family faced persecution and public humiliation during the Cultural Revolution. Xi Jinping was sent to rural Liangjiahe in 1969 and spent about seven years there under harsh, primitive living conditions.
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Leninism modifies Marxism, and its Chinese form represents a further modification.
Leninism developed and adapted Marxist theory to the political and social conditions of revolutionary Russia, notably through concepts such as the vanguard party. Mao Zedong Thought subsequently adapted Marxism-Leninism to China's predominantly agrarian conditions, although describing these developments simply as successive 'modifications' compresses substantial ideological complexity.
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Xi Jinping's father was purged and later rehabilitated, Mao died, and Deng subsequently took over.
Xi Zhongxun was purged in 1962 and rehabilitated in 1978. Mao Zedong died in 1976, and although Hua Guofeng initially succeeded him formally, Deng Xiaoping emerged as China's paramount leader by late 1978.
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Xi Jinping was about 23 years old when Mao Zedong died.
Xi was born on June 15, 1953, and Mao died on September 9, 1976, making Xi 23 years old at the time.
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Under Xi Jinping, power has been consolidated and Chinese civil society—including rights lawyers, labor organizers, journalists and NGOs—has faced a severe crackdown.
Human-rights reporting documents sharply tightened controls over civil society, media, academia and the legal profession after Xi took power, including mass detentions of rights lawyers and pressure on labor and nongovernmental organizations.
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Xi Jinping is much more well-published than most world leaders.
Xi has an unusually extensive catalog of published speeches, writings, and official compilations. However, no reliable comparative dataset defines “well-published” and ranks him against most world leaders, while many volumes are institutionally compiled collections rather than conventional individually authored books.
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Xi Jinping and the Communist Party believe history has a directional shape that informs their governance and can be accelerated through the agency of a Leninist party.
Official CCP materials present Marxism, historical materialism and the Party's leadership as guiding frameworks for understanding historical development and advancing socialism. The claim about deliberately accelerating history is a reasonable summary of Leninist party doctrine, though it condenses a complex and sometimes pragmatic governing ideology.
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China's economic growth rate began to fall after 2010–2011.
World Bank data show real GDP growth dropping from about 10.6% in 2010 and 9.6% in 2011 to below 8% in 2012, followed by a broad long-term deceleration. The IMF likewise identifies a sustained slowdown beginning in the early 2010s.
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Under Xi Jinping, economic growth was deprioritized in favor of control and ideology, with policies sacrificing prosperity.
Xi has substantially strengthened Party and ideological control, including over private enterprise, and some state-led policies have reduced efficiency and productivity. However, attributing the broader slowdown mainly to a deliberate sacrifice of prosperity overstates the evidence: aging, declining investment returns, property-sector problems, debt, trade tensions and slower productivity are also major causes, while Xi's government has continued to set and pursue growth targets.