The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping (Stanford-Hoover Series on Authoritarianism)

Selected as a Best Book of 2025 by The Economist, Foreign Affairs, BBC History Magazine, New Indian Express, and Marginal Revolution "[A] masterly biography of Xi Zhongxun, the father of China's present-day president, Xi Jinping.... [A] scrupulously researched and keenly perceptive account of an important but, in the West, little-known historical figure."-Robert B.Zoellick, The Wall Street Journal China's leader, Xi Jinping, is one of the most powerful individuals in the world - and one of the least understood.Much can be learned, however, about both Xi Jinping and the nature of the party he leads from the memory and legacy of his father, the revolutionary Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002).The elder Xi served the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for more than seven decades.He worked at the right hand of prominent leaders Zhou Enlai and Hu Yaobang.He helped build the Communist base area that saved Mao Zedong in 1935, and he initiated the Special Economic Zones that launched China into the reform era