Xi Jinping succeeded Hu Jintao as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012, and later in 2016 was proclaimed the CCP's 4th leadership core, following Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin. Xi secured an unprecedented third term as CCP general secretary after the 20th CCP National Congress in 2022.
General secretaryship of Xi Jinping 以习近平同志为核心的党中央 | |
|---|---|
5th generation Communist leadership of the People's Republic of China | |
| Incumbent | |
Xi Jinping in 2025 | |
| Date formed | 15 November 2012 |
| People and organisations | |
| Head of state | Xi Jinping |
| Head of government | Li Keqiang Li Qiang |
| No. of ministers | 31 |
| Member party | Chinese Communist Party Eight minor parties |
| History | |
| Elections | 18th Congress in November 2012 19th Congress in October 2017 20th Congress in October 2022 |
| Legislature terms | 12th National People's Congress 13th National People's Congress 14th National People's Congress |
| Predecessor | Hu Jintao Administration/ Xi–Li Administration |
| General secretaryship of Xi Jinping | |||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 习近平体制 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 習近平體制 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Xi Jinping System | ||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 以习近平同志为核心的党中央 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 以習近平同志為核心的黨中央 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the Core | ||||||||||
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| Second alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 以习近平同志为总书记的党中央 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 以習近平同志為總書記的黨中央 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the General Secretary | ||||||||||
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Xi's political ideas and principles, known as Xi Jinping Thought, have been incorporated into the party and national constitutions. As the central figure of the fifth generation of leadership of the PRC, Xi has centralized institutional power by taking on multiple positions, including new CCP committees on national security, economic and social reforms, military restructuring and modernization, and the Internet. He and the CCP Central Committee passed a historical resolution in November 2021.
His rule is often described as an authoritarian leader by political and academic observers, while his tenure has included an increase of censorship and mass surveillance, alleged deterioration in human rights, including the internment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, a cult of personality developing around Xi, and the removal of term limits for the presidency in 2018.
In economic policy, Xi has prioritized poverty alleviation and creating common prosperity to reduce disparities in wealth. Xi's administration seeks to implement common prosperity in part through its education policy, including through drastically curtailing the tutoring industry and reducing homework burdens. Xi continues to emphasize the need for global development, including through the Belt and Road Initiative.
In foreign policy, Xi emphasizes the Community of Common Destiny. He seeks to increase China's ability to shape international norms in emerging policy areas (described as "new frontiers") like space and the internet, where China can position itself as an early entrant. Xi also seeks to increase China's discourse power, which he frames as China's "right to speak."
Economic policies
Xi Jinping has set three overarching goals for China's economy.: 10 First, to increase China's capacity for innovation so that it will be able to more actively shape global economic rules.: 10 Second, to enhance order and security in China's domestic market.: 10 Third, creating common prosperity and increasing wealth distribution to the poor.: 10
During the Xi Jinping era, the Chinese government continues to use state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to serve non-market objectives and CCP control of SOEs has increased: 138 while taking some limited steps towards market liberalization, such as increasing mixed ownership of SOEs.: 141 Although China has promoted its national champion companies since the Jiang Zemin administration,: 158 it has done so particularly strongly since 2017, especially in the technology sector.: 91
Since 2015, the CCP has issued several industrial plans designed to emphasize high-tech innovation and digital development.: 135 These industrial plans include Made in China 2025, the "Action Outline for Promoting the Development of Big Data", and the "Three-Year Action Plan to Promote the Development of a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Industry".: 135 China's Thirteenth and Fourteenth Five-Year Plans have also emphasized high-tech and innovative development.: 135
During the Xi Jinping administration, China has emphasized an economic strategy of dual circulation.: 170 First, it seeks to rely more on China's domestic consumers.: 160 Second, it seeks to innovate more domestically developed technology and thereby reduce China's reliance on western technology.: 160
By 2020, China became the largest trading partner of more than 120 countries.: 228 At the end of that year, China signed major free trade agreements with the European Union as well as fifteen different Asia-Pacific countries.: 259 As of at least 2023, China is the world's largest exporter, a status it has maintained continuously since 2010.: 88
China's was the only major world economy to experience GDP growth in 2020, when its GDP increased by 2.3%. In 2021, China's GDP growth reached 8.1% (its highest in a decade) and its trade surplus reached an all-time high $687.5 billion.
Education reform
Xi has implemented a number of education reforms.: 155 Schools are required to adjust their opening hours to be consistent with work hours in their area so that parents can pick-up their children directly after work (in order to reduce reliance on private classes for adult supervision after school hours).: 155 Schools must also promote health by requiring outdoor physical education classes daily and providing eye examinations twice per term.: 155 Educational reforms have also limited the amount of homework students can be assigned.: 156
As part of Xi's 2021 directive on "double lessening" (reducing excessive off-campus tutoring and reducing homework burdens), schools may not assign homework to children to grades one and two, homework is limited to no more than 60 minutes for children in grades three to six, and no more than 90 minutes for middle school children.: 156 In July 2021, China enacted a series of rules designed to shutdown the private tutoring sector.: 156
The government's rationale was that rising educational costs were antithetical to the goals of common prosperity.: 67 Shutting down private tutoring was intended to narrow the education gap between rich and poor.: 5 Rules issued in July 2021 prohibits new registration of private tuition tutoring centers and required existing centers to re-organize as non-profits.: 156 Tuition centers are prohibited from being listed on the stock market or receiving "excessive capital.": 156 They are no longer permitted to offer tutoring on the weekends or during public holidays.: 156
Since September 2021, private schools providing compulsory education can no longer be controlled by foreign entities or individuals.: 57 Only Chinese nationals may serve on their boards of directors.: 157
Foreign policy
During the Xi Jinping administration, China seeks to shape international norms and rules in emerging policy areas where China has an advantage as an early participant.: 188 Xi describes such areas as "new frontiers," and they include policy areas such as space, deep sea, polar regions, the Internet, nuclear safety, anticorruption, and climate change.: 188
In his effort to build additional institutional capacity for foreign policy coordination, Xi Jinping created the National Security Commission (NSC), which absorbed the NSLG.: 180 The NSC's focus is holistic national security and it addresses both external and internal security matters.: 180 Xi introduced the holistic security concept in 2014, which he defined as taking "the security of the people as compass, political security as its roots, economic security as its pillar, military security, cultural security, and cultural security as its protections, and that relies on the promotion of international security.": 3
During the Xi Jinping era, the Community of Common Destiny has become China's most important foreign relations formulation.: 6 In his foreign policy discourse, Xi cites the examples of "foreign friends of China" to acknowledge other countries' sacrifices to assist in China's national liberation, particularly with regard to the Second Sino-Japanese war.: 42 For example, during diplomatic visits to other countries, Xi has praised the contributions of people like Claire Lee Chennault, Norman Bethune, Dawarkanath Kotnis, and Soviet pilots.: 42
Xi emphasizes his desire to increase China's discourse power in international matters, often characterizing this in terms of China's "right to speak".: 103
During Xi's administration, China has often extended state-backed loans for energy and infrastructure-building in exchange for natural resources in regions like Central Asia and Africa.: 87
Political thought
"Xi Jinping Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era" was formally launched at the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party having gradually been developed since 2012, when Xi became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.: 21–26
In his political discourse, Xi incorporates historical examples and themes.: 32 He describes history as "the best teacher" and "the best textbook".: 32 Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi encourages the Chinese people to develop "historical self-confidence".: 32 Xi includes ancient history in his political discourse, characterizing China as a "splendid civilization" and highlighting its five thousand years of history.: 33 He often cites the Four Great Inventions as a source of national pride and China's contribution to humanity.: 33 In his discourse for foreign audiences regarding China's peaceful rise, Xi quotes the Confucian saying, "If you do not want to have it yourself, you should not want to impose it on others.": 64 In his discourse on the community of shared future, Xi cites the third century scholar Chen Shou's saying that "delicious soup is made by combining different ingredients.": 64
Anti-corruption
A far-reaching anti-corruption campaign was launched in China following the conclusion of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012. Initiated by CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, the campaign became the most extensive and systematic anti-corruption effort in the history of CCP governance. The campaign began with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) conducting investigations into numerous high-ranking CCP and government officials, as well as People's Liberation Army (PLA) generals and heads of state-owned enterprises and institutions, for violations of discipline and law. Nationwide, disciplinary inspection and supervision departments at all levels of the CCP and government have investigated and punished CCP members and senior officials for violations of discipline and law.
Upon assuming office, Xi Jinping pledged to crack down on both "tigers and flies", referring respectively to high-ranking officials and grassroots civil servants. Most of the officials investigated were dismissed from office and faced charges of bribery and abuse of power, though the severity and nature of the alleged misconduct varied considerably. Administered primarily by the CCDI its Secretary from 2012 to 2017, Wang Qishan, alongside the relevant military and judicial bodies, the campaign has targeted hundreds senior officials, including dozens ministerial-level official and senior PLA officers, hundreds of deputy ministerial-level officials, several executives of state-owned enterprises, and five national leaders.
The campaign notably investigated both sitting and former national-level leaders. These included former Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) member Zhou Yongkang and former Politburo members and Central Military Commission (CMC) vice chairmen Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong. The campaign also targeted sitting Politburo members such as Chongqing Party secretary Sun Zhengcai in 2017 and CMC vice chairman He Weidong in 2025. As of 2023, approximately 2.3 million government officials had been prosecuted. The campaign formed a central component of a broader initiative aimed at curbing corruption within the CCP and reinforcing internal unity. It has since become one of the defining features of Xi's political legacy.Military reform
Reform of China's defense and military structure began after Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission in 2012. Under Xi's administration, China created the CCP National Security Commission and established an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea in 2013. In 2014, Xi told the CCP Politburo that the PLA should operate by integrating multiple services.
The "deepening national defense and military reform" was announced in November 2015 at a plenary session of the Central Military Commission (CMC)'s Central Leading Group for Military Reform. They were expected to be long and extensive that aimed at turning the PLA into a modern military on par with international standards. Before the reforms were announced, Xi said the CMC should directly control the military and new regional commands be created.
In January 2014, Chinese senior military officers[who?] said that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was planning to reduce the number of military regions from seven to five Theater Commands to have joint command with the ground, naval, air and rocket forces. This is planned to change their concept of operations from primarily ground-oriented defense to mobile and coordinated movements of all services and to enhance offensive air and naval capabilities. The coastal areas would be turned into three military regions, each with a joint operations command (Jinan, Nanjing and Guangzhou) for projecting power into the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea. The four other inland military regions (Shenyang, Beijing, Chengdu and Lanzhou) will be streamlined into two military areas mainly for organizing forces for operations. The change was projected to occur through 2019.Human rights abuses
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Xi Jinping has "started a broad and sustained offensive on human rights" since he became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012. Since taking power, Xi has cracked down on grassroots activism, with hundreds being detained. He presided over the 709 crackdown on 9 July 2015, which saw more than 200 lawyers, legal assistants and human rights activists being detained. HRW also said that repression in China is "at its worst level since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre."
On 6 October 2020, 39 United Nations member countries expressed deep concerns over China's human rights violations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet. The call was made by Germany, supported by Britain, Canada, the United States, many European Union member states, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Haiti, Honduras, Palau, and the Marshall Islands.
The World report 2022 by Human Rights Watch stated that the Chinese Communist Party under the leadership of Xi Jinping celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021 amid crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and the devastation of civil liberties in Hong Kong. In 2021 the Chinese Communist Party tightened ideological control and increasingly cracked down on free speech. The CCP also moved quickly to offer support to Afghanistan's abusive Taliban-controlled government.
Current members
Standing Committee
| R. | Officeholder | 19th | Birth | PM | Birthplace | Academic feats | Positions | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xi Jinping | 习近平 | Old | 1953 | 1974 | Beijing | Graduate
| Twelve
| ||
| 2 | Li Qiang | 李强 | New | 1959 | 1983 | Zhejiang | Graduate
| Fifteen
| ||
| 3 | Zhao Leji | 赵乐际 | Old | 1957 | 1975 | Qinghai | Graduate
| Four
| ||
| 4 | Wang Huning | 王沪宁 | Old | 1955 | 1984 | Shanghai | Graduate
| Eight
| ||
| 5 | Cai Qi | 蔡奇 | New | 1955 | 1975 | Fujian | Graduate
| Fifteen
| ||
| 6 | Ding Xuexiang | 丁薛祥 | New | 1962 | 1984 | Jiangsu | Graduate
| Thirteen
| ||
| 7 | Li Xi | 李希 | New | 1956 | 1982 | Gansu | Graduate
| Four
| ||
Politburo
| Officeholder | 19th | Birth | PM | Birthplace | Education | Offices held | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cai Qi | 蔡奇 | Old | 1955 | 1975 | Fujian | Graduate | Three
| ||
| Chen Jining | 陈吉宁 | New | 1964 | 1984 | Liaoning | Graduate | One
| ||
| Chen Min'er | 陈敏尔 | Old | 1960 | 1982 | Zhejiang | Graduate | One
| ||
| Chen Wenqing | 陈文清 | New | 1960 | 1983 | Sichuan | Graduate | One
| ||
| Ding Xuexiang | 丁薛祥 | Old | 1962 | 1984 | Jiangsu | Graduate | One
| ||
| He Lifeng | 何立峰 | New | 1955 | 1981 | Guangdong | Graduate | Two
| ||
| He Weidong | 何卫东 | New | 1957 | 1978 | Fujian | Undergraduate | Two
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| Huang Kunming | 黄坤明 | Old | 1956 | 1976 | Fujian | Graduate | One
| ||
| Li Ganjie | 李干杰 | New | 1964 | 1984 | Hunan | Graduate | One
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| Li Hongzhong | 李鸿忠 | Old | 1956 | 1976 | Shenyang | Graduate | One
| ||
| Li Qiang | 李强 | Old | 1959 | 1983 | Zhejiang | Graduate | Eight
| ||
| Li Shulei | 李书磊 | New | 1964 | 1986 | Henan | Graduate | One
| ||
| Li Xi | 李希 | Old | 1956 | 1982 | Gansu | Graduate | Two
| ||
| Liu Guozhong | 刘国中 | New | 1962 | 1986 | Heilongjiang | Graduate | One
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| Ma Xingrui | 马兴瑞 | New | 1959 | 1988 | Heilongjiang | Graduate | One
| ||
| Shi Taifeng | 石泰峰 | New | 1956 | 1982 | Shanxi | Graduate | Two
| ||
| Wang Huning | 王沪宁 | Old | 1955 | 1984 | Shanghai | Graduate | One
| ||
| Wang Yi | 王毅 | New | 1953 | 1981 | Beijing | Graduate | Two
| ||
| Xi Jinping | 习近平 | Old | 1953 | 1974 | Beijing | Graduate | Eleven
| ||
| Yin Li | 尹力 | New | 1962 | 1980 | Shandong | Graduate | One
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| Yuan Jiajun | 袁家军 | New | 1962 | 1992 | Jilin | Graduate | One
| ||
| Zhang Guoqing | 张国清 | New | 1964 | 1984 | Henan | Graduate | One
| ||
| Zhang Youxia | 张又侠 | Old | 1950 | 1969 | Beijing | Graduate | Two
| ||
| Zhao Leji | 赵乐际 | Old | 1957 | 1975 | Shandong | Graduate | One
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