PORTRAIT OF VICE PRESIDENT XI JINPING: "AMBITIOUS
SURVIVOR" OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Summary
-------
1. (C) According to a well connected Embassy contact,
Politburo Standing Committee Member and Vice President Xi
Jinping is "exceptionally ambitious," confident and focused,
and has had his "eye on the prize" from early adulthood.
Unlike many youth who "made up for lost time by having fun"
after the Cultural Revolution, Xi "chose to survive by
becoming redder than the red." He joined the Party and began
mapping out a career plan that would take him to the top of
the system. In our contact's view, Xi is supremely pragmatic
and a realist, driven not by ideology but by a combination of
ambition and "self-protection." Xi is a true "elitist" at
heart, according to our contact, believing that rule by a
dedicated and committed Communist Party leadership is the key
to enduring social stability and national strength. The most
permanent influences shaping Xi's worldview were his
"princeling" pedigree and formative years growing up with
families of first-generation CCP revolutionaries in Beijing's
exclusive residential compounds. Our contact is convinced
that Xi has a genuine sense of "entitlement," believing that
members of his generation are the "legitimate heirs" to the
revolutionary achievements of their parents and therefore
"deserve to rule China."
2. (C) Xi is not corrupt and does not care about money, but
could be "corrupted by power," in our contact's view. Xi at
one point early in his career was quite taken with Buddhist
mysticism, displaying a fascination with (and knowledge of)
Buddhist martial arts and mystical powers said to aid health.
The contact stated that Xi is very familiar with the West,
including the United States, and has a favorable outlook
toward the United States. He also understands Taiwan and the
Taiwan people from his long tenure as an official in Fujian
Province. End Summary.
Introduction
------------
3. (C) A longtime Embassy contact and former close friend of
Politburo Standing Committee Member and Vice President Xi
Jinping has shared with PolOff his first-hand knowledge of
Xi's family background, upbringing, early adulthood, and
political career, as well as his impressions and assessments
of Xi's personality and political views. The information was
acquired in multiple conversations over a two-year period
2007-2009. The contact is an American citizen of Chinese
descent who teaches political science at a U.S. university
(protect), hereafter referred to as "the professor."
Fifteen-Year Relationship with Xi
---------------------------------
4. (C) PolOff's contact ("the professor") and Xi Jinping were
both born in 1953 and grew up in similar circumstances.
According to the professor, they lived with other sons and
daughters of China's first-generation revolutionaries in the
senior leaders' compounds in Beijing and were groomed to
become China's ruling elite. The professor did not know Xi
personally until they had both reached their late teens, when
the professor began to hear about Xi from the professor's
best friend, Zhou Sanhua (protect), who was later sent to the
same village as Xi in Shaanxi province during the Cultural
Revolution. (Note: According to the professor, Zhou
Sanhua's father was a former editor-in-chief of the People's
Liberation Army (PLA) Daily.) By the time the professor and
Xi had returned separately from the countryside, they had
come to know each other personally, initially through Zhou
Sanhua's introduction, and maintained a relationship for the
next 15 years (ca. 1972 to 1987), even though their lives and
careers took markedly different paths.
Revolutionary Fathers
---------------------
5. (C) Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, was a communist guerilla
leader in northwest China in the 1930s, when Mao and the CCP
leaders reached Yan'an at the end of the Long March. Xi
Zhongxun was one of the few local leaders to survive later
purges, siding with the Mao Zedong faction and rising quickly
through Party ranks to become a Vice Premier in the 1950s
while still in his thirties. According to the professor, Xi
Zhongxun was the youngest Vice Premier among the early
generation of CCP leaders. Despite his association with
Mao's group, said the professor, Xi Zhongxun was also "good
friends" with Deng Xiaoping and was "actually closer to Deng
than to Mao."
BEIJING 00003128 002 OF 006
6. (C) The professor's father was also an early revolutionary
and contemporary of Mao, from a neighboring county to Mao's
in Hunan province. The professor's father participated in
the revolution periodically but also spent time in Japan and
Hong Kong, distinguishing himself as a labor leader. In
1949, according to the professor, his father agreed to return
to Beijing at Mao's insistence and became the PRC's first
Minister of Labor and a member of the first Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Standing Committee.
7. (C) Despite Communist Party rhetoric regarding the
creation of a "classless" society, the professor described,
the pre-Cultural Revolution society and leadership compounds
in which he and Xi Jinping grew up were, ironically, the
"most precisely class-based mini-society ever constructed."
Everything was determined by one's "internal party class
status," the professor asserted, including the kindergarten
one attended, the place where one shopped, and the type of
car one could own. All of these "benefits" were determined
by Party rank, such as Politburo Standing Committee member,
Vice Minister, or Central Committee member. One's every
action, every day, was in some way an indication of one's
"class" status, the professor stated. The children of this
revolutionary elite were told that they, too, would someday
take their rightful place in the Chinese leadership. All of
this came to an end in the Cultural Revolution, the professor
said, but consciousness of membership in an entitled, elite
generation of future rulers has remained among most of the
members of this class.
Cultural Revolution and Return to Beijing
-----------------------------------------
8. (C) Both Xi Zhongxun and the professor's father were
purged during the Cultural Revolution and spent time in
prison, according to the professor. (Note: Xi Zhongxun was
purged in the early 1960s, several years before the Cultural
Revolution began, but things got worse for him and his family
once the Cultural Revolution started.) The professor's
father was falsely accused of supporting Liu Shaoqi and spent
most of the Cultural Revolution years (1966-1976) in prison.
Both Xi Zhongxun and the professor's father were later
rehabilitated when Deng Xiaoping returned to power. Xi was
rehabilitated by Deng in 1978 and was appointed by Deng as
Party Secretary in Guangdong in the 1980s.
9. (C) In the early 1970s, the circle of youthful friends,
including Xi Jinping and the professor, managed to return to
Beijing from the countryside. The professor described
themselves as "fugitives" of one kind or another. The
professor himself served prison time and spent "years on the
run" due to his father's status as a "counter-revolutionary."
At this time, the professor said, he knew Xi, but they did
not spend a great deal of time together.
10. (C) The professor said that he and others found
dramatically different ways to "survive" the aftermath of the
Cultural Revolution. While the professor and his closest
circle of friends descended into the pursuit of romantic
relationships, drink, movies and Western literature as a
release from the hardships of the time, Xi Jinping, by
contrast "chose to survive by becoming redder than the red."
(Note: The professor commented that, in a continuation of
his attempt to deal with the Cultural Revolution, the
professor eventually decided to "flee" China and pursue
graduate study -- and a new life -- in the United States.)
Unlike the professor and others who shared his Cultural
Revolution experience in rural villages, Xi turned to serious
politics upon his return to Beijing, joining the CCP in 1974
while his father was still in prison. The professor and his
friends were reading DeGaulle and Nixon and "trying to catch
up for lost years by having fun," while Xi was reading Marx
and laying the foundation for a career in politics. Xi even
went off to join a "worker-peasant-soldier revolutionary
committee" (note: a label given provincial governing units
during the Cultural Revolution), after which the professor
had presumed he would never see Xi again. It was an "open
secret," the professor said, that it was through the
"worker-peasant-soldier revolutionary committee" that Xi got
his "bachelor's education." The professor said Xi's first
degree was not a "real" university education, but instead a
three-year degree in applied Marxism. (Note: Xi's official
biography provides no information on Xi between his
assignment to Yanchuan county, Shaanxi province, in 1969, and
1975, when, it states, he became a student at Tsinghua
University, graduating in 1979.)
Neighbors, 1977-1982
--------------------
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11. (C) When Xi and the professor's fathers were
rehabilitated following the Cultural Revolution, the
professor said, their respective families were relocated to
the "Nanshagou" housing compound in western Beijing, directly
across from Diaoyutai. The professor opened his Nanshagou
apartment door one day in 1977 and there was Xi, standing
across the hall from him. The two friends lived directly
across from one another and, the professor said, talked
almost daily for the next five years. Xi became a PLA
officer "and wore his uniform every day," while the professor
became a student at Beijing Shifan Daxue (Beijing Normal
University). There were many prominent leaders in Nanshagou,
including Wang Daohan, Jiang Zemin's mentor. Jiang
frequently rode his bike there, and Jia Qinglin (currently
Politburo Standing Committee member) also had a connection to
Wang from that time, the professor said.
Sporadic Contact, 1982-1987
---------------------------
12. (C) From 1982 to 1987, the professor only saw Xi
periodically, most memorably during a visit to Xiamen in the
mid-1980s, where Xi was serving as a local official, and in
1987 when Xi visited the professor in Washington, D.C. In
Xiamen, Xi treated the professor like royalty, but they did
not spend much time together during the professor's visit
there, and Xi said very little of substance. The professor,
in turn, hosted Xi in Washington, D.C., where the professor
was a graduate student. Xi's 1987 visit to the United States
was the last time the two men met face to face. The last
time the professor spoke with Xi was when his father, Xi
Zhongxun, passed away several years ago, at which time the
two spoke briefly over the phone when the professor called to
offer his condolences. Xi was serving as the Party Secretary
of Zhejiang Province at the time.
Xi's Family
-----------
13. (C) Xi was the middle child in a family of three children
that included an older sister and a younger brother, all of
whom were apparently from his father's second marriage,
according to the professor. Xi's older sister, Xi An'an, at
some point left China for Canada, and as far as the professor
knows, still resides there. Xi An'an's husband was in the
PLA, the professor said. Xi's younger brother, Xi Yuanping,
moved to Hong Kong when it was under British rule. The last
time the professor saw Xi Yuanping was in the 1980s, at a
time when Xi's father Xi Zhongxun was still Party Secretary
in Guangdong province. The brother had become both obese and
very wealthy, the professor said, sporting "expensive jewelry
and designer clothing." The professor has lost contact with
him since. (Note: Unofficial biographies published in Hong
Kong claim Xi had other siblings as well.)
Marriage and Divorce
--------------------
14. (C) Xi Jinping's first marriage was to Ke Xiaoming, the
daughter of China's 1978-1983 ambassador to Great Britain, Ke
Hua. According to the professor, Ke Xiaoming was elegant and
well educated. The couple initially lived with Xi's parents
in the Nanshagou housing compound, but as his father's
political fortunes rose, his parents moved to a new house in
"East" Beijing, near the Drum Tower and close to the houses
of Deng Xiaoping and Yang Shangkun, leaving the young couple
to themselves in the Nanshagou apartment. The couple fought
"almost every day," the professor said, and the marriage
ended when Ke Xiaoming returned to England and Xi refused to
go with her. The professor remarked that he thought Xi's
"distant" quality contributed to the couple's divorce. He
noted that he had watched Xi "drift" further and further from
Ke Xiaoming, until she finally left for England. There was,
"of course," no way that Xi would go with her, the professor
said. Xi later married a famous PLA singer.
Xi's Early Career: Single-Minded Pursuit of Power
--------------------------------------------- -----
15. (C) According to the professor, Xi was always
"exceptionally ambitious" and had his "eye on the prize" from
the very beginning. Once Xi had returned from his education
in the worker-soldier-peasant revolutionary committee, he
carefully laid out a career plan that would maximize his
opportunities to rise to the top levels of the Party
hierarchy, first becoming a PLA officer in the late 1970s and
then serving in a variety of provincial leadership positions,
progressively rising through the ranks. By 1979, Xi was on
the staffs of the State Council and the Central Military
Commission (CMC), serving as an assistant to the CMC
Secretary General and later Minister of National Defense
BEIJING 00003128 004 OF 006
(1982), General Geng Biao, a revolutionary comrade of his
father's. The professor said he had the impression that Geng
Biao had helped Xi Jinping get the PLA job, and that Xi
Zhongxun had, in turn, given Geng's daughter a position in
Guangdong when he was Party Secretary there.
16. (C) According to the professor, Xi subsequently became
even more serious in plotting a career path to the top. By
all appearances, with his father having been politically
rehabilitated and rapidly regaining his power, Xi Jinping
could have continued to rise quickly in the Central Party
apparatus. Xi, however, reasoned that in the long run,
staying in Beijing would limit his career potential. Xi told
the professor that staying with Geng Biao would eventually
shrink his power base, which would ultimately rest primarily
on his father's and Geng's networks and political support.
Moreover, in time, people would turn against him if he stayed
in the Center.
17. (C) So in a calculated move to lay the basis for a future
return as a Central leader, Xi asked for a position in the
countryside and, in 1982, became a local official in
Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province. Xi later became
the Deputy Party Secretary in Zhengding county, also in
Hebei. Xi told the professor at the time that he "would be
back one day." (Note: Xi later served for many years in
Fujian province, becoming Governor in 2000, then moving to
Zhejiang province in 2002 to be Party Secretary, and then to
Shanghai as Party Secretary in 2007. He was elevated to the
Politburo Standing Committee at the 17th National CCP
Congress in October 2007 and was appointed Vice President at
the National People's Congress in March 2008.)
18. (C) Xi told the professor at the time that going to the
provinces was his "only path to central power." Xi thought
it was important to know people in the Central Organization
Department and to keep his eyes on the Center, even as he
worked his way up the ladder as a local official. According
to the professor, Xi "had promotion to the Center in mind
from day one." Xi knew how to develop personal networks and
work the system, first using his father's networks and later
building his own.
Xi the Person
-------------
19. (C) The professor offered his personal assessment --
based on their similar upbringing and his long association
with Xi during his formative years -- of Xi's personality and
political views. Although he had not seen Xi in person in
more than 20 years, "one cannot entirely escape one's past,"
he asserted, and "Xi does not want to." The professor on
repeated occasions painted a portrait of Xi Jinping as an
ambitious, calculating, confident and focused person who in
early adulthood demonstrated his singleness of purpose by
distinguishing himself from his peers and turning his
attention to politics even before the Cultural Revolution had
concluded. The professor marveled that Xi joined the
Communist Party while his father still languished in a Party
prison for alleged political crimes. At the time, the
professor and his friend Zhou felt "betrayed" by Xi's embrace
of the CCP, but both realized this was one way to "survive."
Xi chose to "join the system" to get ahead. Although Xi
never said so explicitly, he sent a message that, in China,
there was a better way forward than what the professor had
chosen: namely, do not give up on the system. Xi was
reserved and detached and "difficult to read," said the
professor. He had a "strong mind" and understood power, but
"from day one, never showed his hand."
20. (C) Unlike those in the social circles the professor ran
in, Xi Jinping could not talk about women and movies and did
not drink or do drugs. Xi was considered of only average
intelligence, the professor said, and not as smart as the
professor's peer group. Women thought Xi was "boring." The
professor never felt completely relaxed around Xi, who seemed
extremely "driven." Nevertheless, despite Xi's lack of
popularity in the conventional sense and his "cold and
calculating" demeanor in these early years, the professor
said, Xi was "not cold-hearted." He was still considered a
"good guy" in other ways. Xi was outwardly friendly, "always
knew the answers" to questions, and would "always take care
of you." The professor surmised that Xi's newfound
popularity today, which the professor found surprising, must
stem in part from Xi's being "generous and loyal." Xi also
does not care at all about money and is not corrupt, the
professor stated. Xi can afford to be incorruptible, the
professor wryly noted, given that he was born with a silver
spoon in his mouth. It is likely that Xi could, however, be
"corrupted by power."
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Xi's Political Instincts and Biases
-----------------------------------
21. (C) In the professor's view, Xi Jinping is supremely
pragmatic, a realist, driven not by ideology but by a
combination of ambition and "self-protection." The professor
saw Xi's early calculations to carefully lay out a realistic
career path as an illustration of his pragmatism. The most
permanent influences shaping Xi's worldview were his
princeling pedigree and formative years growing up with
families of first-generation CCP revolutionaries in Beijing's
elite residential compounds. These influences were amplified
by Xi's decision in his early twenties to join the CCP and
then the PLA. Xi solidified these views and values during
his subsequent very successful 30-year career as a Party
official, the professor concluded.
22. (C) Xi is a true "elitist" at heart, according to the
professor, and believes that rule by a dedicated and
committed Communist Party leadership is the key to enduring
social stability and national strength, as in the
(self-perceived) elite-dominated society of his youth, knit
together by family ties, elders and male authority. After
years of conversations with Xi, and having shared a common
upbringing with him, the professor said, he is convinced that
Xi has a genuine sense of "entitlement," believing that
members of his generation are the "legitimate heirs" to the
revolutionary achievements of their parents and therefore
"deserve to rule China." For this reason, the professor
maintained, Xi could never be a "true member" of current
President Hu Jintao's camp, even if Xi did not give any
indication of opposition to Hu Jintao now. Xi and other
first-generation princelings derisively refer to people with
non-Party, non-elite, commercial backgrounds like Hu Jintao
as "shopkeepers' sons," whose parents did not fight and die
for the revolution and therefore do not deserve positions of
power.
23. (C) Xi knows how very corrupt China is and is repulsed by
the all-encompassing commercialization of Chinese society,
with its attendant nouveau riche, official corruption, loss
of values, dignity, and self-respect, and such "moral evils"
as drugs and prostitution, the professor stated. The
professor speculated that if Xi were to become the Party
General Secretary, he would likely aggressively attempt to
address these evils, perhaps at the expense of the new
moneyed class.
24. (C) Xi at one point early in his career was quite taken
with Buddhist mysticism, according to the professor. In
comments Xi made to the professor, including during the
professor's visit to Xiamen while Xi was serving as an
official there, Xi displayed a fascination with Buddhist
martial arts, qigong, and other mystical powers said to aid
health, as well as with Buddhist sacred sites such as
Wutaishan. The professor said he does not know whether Xi
was actually religious, or whether he was simply looking for
a way to aid his health and well-being. Regardless, the
professor said, he was extremely surprised by how much Xi
knew about the subject and Xi's seeming belief in
supernatural forces.
Familiarity with the West and Taiwan
------------------------------------
25. (C) Based on personal experience, the professor noted, Xi
is very familiar with the West, with a sister in Canada, an
ex-wife in England, a brother in Hong Kong, many friends
overseas, and prior travel to the United States. As far as
the professor can discern, Xi's family and friends have had a
good experience in the West. The professor contrasted Xi's
experience and attitudes toward the West with those of people
sent to the United States by their work units, such as the
nationalist and sometime anti-U.S. Tsinghua University
scholar Yan Xuetong. Xi was the only one of his immediate
family to stay behind in China, the professor noted,
speculating that Xi knew early on that he would "not be
special" outside of China.
26. (C) Xi is favorably disposed toward the United States,
the professor maintained, and would want to maintain good
relations with Washington. The professor said Xi has "no
ambition" to "confront" the United States. During Xi's visit
to Washington, D.C., in 1987, he told the professor that he
had no strong impressions of the United States. Although Xi
was not particularly impressed by the United States, he had
nothing bad to say about it either. Xi took a detached
stance, as if observing from a distance, viewing what he saw
as just a normal part of life, not strange, the professor
said.
BEIJING 00003128 006 OF 006
27. (C) Xi also knows Taiwan and the Taiwan people very well,
the professor said, noting that Xi was in Fujian province for
more than twenty years. Attracting Taiwan investment to
Fujian was an important part of his accomplishments as a
Xiamen official.
HUNTSMAN
HUNTSMAN
