This episode examines Xi Jinping's rise from exiled teenager to China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, tracing the unexpected connection between these two figures across generations.

The narrative begins with the 1934 Long March, where Mao Zedong led 86,000 communist soldiers on a year-long retreat that established his military leadership and introduced Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongxun, a revolutionary who offered Mao's army refuge.

The story follows Xi Jinping's transformation from a privileged Princeling in Beijing to a condemned laborer during Mao's Cultural Revolution, when his father was publicly denounced and imprisoned for 8 years.

After Mao's death and Deng Xiaoping's reforms establishing collective leadership and power-sharing, Xi strategically spent 17 years in rural provinces building loyalty networks before systematically dismantling those reforms.

The episode features analysis from expert Victor Shi, explaining how Xi consolidated absolute power through massive purges, ideological resolutions, and the 2022 National Congress that cemented his control over party and military leadership.

The Long March Origins of Xi's Family Connection to Mao

On October 16, 1934, approximately 130,000 communist soldiers and civilians broke through Nationalist forces to begin the Long March, a year-long retreat to establish a new communist base 800 miles away in rural northern China.

After catastrophic losses in the first three months reduced forces to less than half, Communist Party leader Zhou Enlai handed military leadership back to Mao Zedong, whose guerrilla tactics had previously fallen out of favor.

Fewer than 8,000 of the original marchers survived the journey, but Mao's leadership was credited with saving the Red Army from total annihilation, making him the de facto head of both party and military.

Xi Zhongxun, Xi Jinping's father, led the guerrilla base in northern China that offered Mao's army refuge, bringing the Long March to an end and establishing the family's revolutionary credentials.

Mao's Power Structure and the Politburo Standing Committee

The Chinese Communist Party has a unique three-tier power structure: the Central Committee makes major policy decisions, the Politburo represents the most powerful members, and the Politburo Standing Committee holds supreme control over everything including the Central Military Commission.

At Mao's first National Congress as official party leader in 1945, the party declared "Mao Tse-Tung Thought" or Maoism as the unquestioned guiding principle, meaning Mao's ideas or policy decisions could no longer be challenged by anyone.

Mao promoted Long March survivors loyal to him to top positions regardless of government experience, including Zhou Enlai as China's first premier and Xi Zhongxun as Secretary General of the State Council.

"The advantage of that is that they could never challenge him. The disadvantage of that is they didn't know what they were doing and so administration suffered... policy outcomes suffered."

Cultural Revolution Devastation and Xi's Teenage Exile

Mao's unchecked policies resulted in massive famines and widespread persecution that cost between 40 and 80 million lives over decades, culminating in the Cultural Revolution's violent attempt to consolidate power and force loyalty to Maoism.

High-level officials including Politburo Standing Committee members and Long Marchers were removed from positions, with Liu Shaoqi denounced as a traitor and dying while imprisoned under harsh conditions.

Xi Zhongxun was publicly restrained and criticized by the Red Guards at the height of the Cultural Revolution, remaining a prisoner in Beijing for 8 years following this denunciation.

With his father purged, 15-year-old Xi Jinping was expelled from his elite Beijing school and sent to work in the countryside, living in a cave and doing hard manual labor with barely enough food.

Deng Xiaoping's Reforms and Power-Sharing Era

After Mao's death, successor Deng Xiaoping introduced a second historical resolution in 1981 that condemned periods of Mao's rule and emphasized renewed commitment to collective leadership, vowing to oppose consolidation of power around one person.

"Deng Xiaoping signaled credibly... to all the surviving Long Marchers that he wanted to rehabilitate people. So when Mao died, they all supported the rehabilitation of Deng. And as soon as Deng was rehabilitated he went ahead and rehabilitated all these people."

Deng divided positions among different people, keeping control of the Central Military Commission but never holding the highest party position or head of state role, instead serving as chairman of a new advisory commission.

Deng's reforms opened China economically and established ties with Western countries, with his first visit to the US in 1979 laying foundation for decades of prosperity that led to the world's second largest economy.

"One thing power sharing did lead to... was a lot of policy innovation and then some degree of decentralization. And both of these things helped China's economy enormously."

Xi's Strategic 17-Year Provincial Climb to Power

Despite the Chinese Communist Party ruining his family, Xi joined the party just as the Cultural Revolution was winding down in 1976, recognizing that "in the system of the Chinese Communist Party power is everything. Without power, you're nothing."

Xi left Beijing in the 1980s and 1990s while competitors fiercely competed, taking party leadership positions in poor rural provinces where there were no other princelings to compete with.

Xi served as party secretary in Hebei, a poor rural province outside Beijing, then in Fujian, a heavily militarized region where he made powerful friends in the military before becoming governor.

"Basically, the people who were deciding on top leadership at the time they wanted a Princeling. But they didn't want a Princeling who was too ambitious or too strong. So Xi Jinping he was seen as less ambitious because he was willing to go to the countryside and work in lower-level positions."

After a brief 7-month stint rehabilitating Shanghai's image following a corruption scandal in 2007, Xi was promoted to the Politburo Standing Committee, becoming one of the 9 most powerful men in China.

Systematic Purges and Consolidation of Absolute Control

Xi launched a major anti-corruption campaign immediately after taking power in late 2012, leading to arrests of hundreds of senior-level officials and military officers, targeting rivals whose positions he filled with supporters.

"After this massive purge... Xi Jinping was in very tight control over both the party and also the Chinese military... thereby making him the most powerful leader of the Chinese Communist Party since the death of Mao."

During his second term, Xi unveiled 5 new faces of the Politburo Standing Committee, with three having close personal ties to him, continuing the pattern of replacing rivals with loyalists.

In 2021, Xi introduced a third historic resolution establishing "Xi Jinping Thought" as the core of the party's thinking, political stance and action, meaning Xi's ideas could no longer be challenged.

At the 2022 National Congress, Xi secured a historic third term and unveiled a Politburo Standing Committee completely packed with loyalists after removing final senior members with ties to his predecessor.

"I don't think anyone can push him out at this point. I think Xi will be the most powerful leader in China... as long as he's alive and conscious."

Economic Growth and Authoritarian Expansion Under Xi

During Xi's first 10 years in power, China's economy more than doubled in size, as did average individual income and military spending.

China's presence on the world stage grew significantly, positioning the rising superpower as an aggressor by reasserting claims over parts of the South China Sea, intimidating Taiwan and Tibet, and stripping democratic process in Hong Kong.

Inside China's borders, strict Internet censorship and surveillance became widespread, with oppression of Uyghurs, a mostly minority Muslim ethnic group, marked by human rights abuses.

Covid protests represented the first real challenge to Xi's authority, with widespread demonstrations against zero Covid rules forcing him to reverse the failed policy but leaving him facing a shaky economy and cracks in his unchecked authority.