A new biography of Xi Jinping’s father, the prominent political figure Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002), offers insights into the formative years of the current Chinese leader.
Author Joseph Torigian detailed to “Der Spiegel” that Xi Zhongxun, like many of his generation, employed physical discipline with his children. Serving as a Vice Premier of China from 1959, Xi Zhongxun was described as a strict disciplinarian who sought to prevent his children from growing up with a sense of privilege.
One anecdote illustrates this approach: Torigian recounts that Xi Jinping has described a childhood fear of being awakened at night by his father to bathe in water already used. Xi Zhongxun deemed single-use water wasteful and would reportedly rouse his sleeping sons from bed to utilize the remaining bathwater.
The resilience instilled by his father appears to have deeply influenced Xi Jinping’s political ideology. A pivotal experience was a public humiliation the young Xi Jinping endured around the age of thirteen during the Cultural Revolution. His father had been branded a traitor for alleged plotting against Mao Zedong. At a “struggle session” at the Central Party School in Peking, the young Xi Jinping was forced onto a stage to be denounced for his father’s perceived transgressions, with his mother present in the audience. “As the crowd chanted ‘Down with Xi Jinping,’ his mother in the audience had no choice but to raise her fist and join in” Torigian details in his biography, “The Party’s Interests Come First”, published by Stanford University Press.
Despite the suffering inflicted upon his family by the Communist Party, Xi Jinping has remained loyal to the institution. As a leader, he has adopted an authoritarian approach that, in some respects, diverges from that of his father, who was considered relatively liberal after his rehabilitation in the late 1970s. Torigian quotes a Chinese intellectual as stating that Xi Jinping is “not Xi Zhongxun’s son, but Mao Zedong’s grandson”.
