Listen: The rise and rise of Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping is one of the world's most powerful leaders. At the time of this recording, he was widely expected to secure a third term as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the 20th National Congress of the CCP. Despite having been in power for close to a decade, he remained a figure of mystery to much of the world.

In this conversation, Dr Joseph Torigian — one of the premier scholars of the Chinese leader and elite politics — discusses Xi's early years and rise to power, and what that reveals about the Chinese leader's worldview and agenda. The event was moderated by Richard McGregor, the Lowy Institute's Senior Fellow for East Asia.

Joseph Torigian is Assistant Professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC and a Global Fellow in the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Previously, he has been affiliated with the Australian National University, the Council on Foreign Relations and Princeton–Harvard's China and the World Program. He completed his PhD at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. His book, Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao, was published by Yale University Press, and he has a forthcoming biography on Xi Jinping's father with Stanford University Press.