CHANGING OF THE GUARD
Elite and Deft, Xi Aimed High Early in China
Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times
The
Rongguofu mansion in Zhengding, part of a profitable film enterprise
that Xi Jinping promoted during his tenure as party secretary in the
village.
By IAN JOHNSON
Published: September 29, 2012
ZHENGDING County, China — Thirty years ago, a young government official with a plum job in Beijing made an odd request: reassignment to a poor rural area.
Changing of the Guard
Articles
in this series are examining the implications for China and the rest of
the world of the coming changes in the leadership of the Chinese
Communist Party.
Related
Changing of the Guard: China Politics Stall Overhaul for Economy(September 27, 2012)
Xie Huanchi/Xinhua, via Associated Press
Xi Jinping
At
the time, millions of young people were still clawing their way back to
China’s urban centers after being exiled to the countryside in the Mao
era. But 30-year-old Xi Jinpingbucked
the trend, giving up a secure post as adviser to a top military leader
to navigate the tumultuous village politics of Zhengding, in Hebei
Province.
The move offers a window on the
political savvy of Mr. Xi, who, despite a recent two-week absence from
public view that raised questions about his health, is on the cusp of
taking over as China’s supreme leader at a party congress that officials
announced Friday would begin Nov. 8.
Mr. Xi (his
full name is pronounced Shee Jin-ping) gained a measure of credibility
to speak for rural Chinese compared with many other well-connected
children of the elite. He also realized, according to several inside
accounts, that his powerful family stood firmly behind him, ensuring
that his stint in the countryside would be a productive and relatively
brief exercise in résumé building that could propel him up the Communist
Party hierarchy.
His powerful father, Xi
Zhongxun, a revolutionary-era military leader, helped orchestrate his
transfer, selecting Zhengding because of its relative
proximity to Beijing, and later having Mr. Xi reassigned when he ran
into local opposition, Chinese experts who have researched Mr. Xi’s
background said.
His connections allowed him to
take chances in Zhengding. He pushed through market-oriented reforms
when they were still considered cutting edge, and sidelined pro-Maoists.
His stint in the countryside also helped him form new alliances with
other offspring of the elite who would later prove important allies.
Even
three decades into the country’s rapid industrialization, China’s
leadership still pays heed to its heritage as a party of peasants, and
it has tended to promote officials who can claim to be deeply rooted in
the rural struggle. But it has also tended to favor “princelings,” the
privileged offspring of former leaders who had ties to the party’s
revolutionary history.
After his time in Zhengding, Mr. Xi could
check both boxes.
“People think of him as being
from the new generation of technocrats,” says Jin Zhong, a Hong
Kong-based analyst of Chinese political leaders. “But he’s really a
continuation of the red bureaucracy of his father’s generation.”
Mr.
Xi’s trajectory was similar to that of Bo Xilai, another princeling who
used stints in the provinces to create an image of a bold reformer and
champion of the poor before his career was derailed by a major scandal
this year. Mr. Xi’s stay in Zhengding, however, was characteristically
more cautious, even as parts of it have entered modern Chinese political
lore.
When Mr. Xi volunteered for rural duty in
1982, he did so along with two other up-and-coming officials, including
Liu Yuan, son of the former head of state under Mao, Liu Shaoqi.
The
men’s decision to work at the grass roots caught the popular
imagination after the author Ke Yunlu wrote a 1986 novel, “New Star,”
about a party secretary who takes modern, market ideas to a backward
province. The official meets many troubles but manages to triumph.
The
novel’s hero was a composite character based on Mr. Xi and the other
two young officials. The book was soon made into a popular television
series and is still widely known as a classic of that early reform era.
What
Mr. Xi found in Zhengding was less romantic than the novel. He had
hoped to be a party secretary with direct authority over a town or
county but the conservative provincial party secretary, Gao Yang,
blocked that. Disgusted by inexperienced but well-connected princelings
like Mr. Xi parachuting into his domain, Mr. Gao made him deputy party
secretary of Zhengding.
Still, Mr. Xi took on the
assignment with gusto. He wore a green army greatcoat from his
involuntary service in another rural area under Mao, roaming the town
night and day to survey its problems. Wang Youhui, a local official,
wrote in a published essay that he recalls seeing Mr. Xi for the first
time and being taken aback by his plain style.
“I
realized that this guy, who from his style of dress made him look like a
lad from the canteen crew, was the new deputy party secretary,” Mr.
Wang wrote.
Mr.
Xi’s biggest challenge was managing the county’s roads, which were part
of national north-south arteries. They were so bad — strewn with
manure, dirt and grain left out to dry — that the county was labeled in
government reports as “chaotic, dirty and backward.”
Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times
Chinese chess in a town built in the Qing dynasty style in Zhengding, a project of Mr. Xi’s.
Changing of the Guard
Articles
in this series are examining the implications for China and the rest of
the world of the coming changes in the leadership of the Chinese
Communist Party.
Related
Changing of the Guard: China Politics Stall Overhaul for Economy(September 27, 2012)
Mr.
Xi took firm action. According to internal government histories, he
held mandatory classes for 43,200 people — 10 percent of the county’s
population — on how the roads should be handled. As a member of the
county’s Politics and Law Committee he also helped lead a draconian
crackdown on crime, part of a
nationwide attack on “Spiritual Pollution.”
The
county began holding show trials of criminals through the summer and
autumn of 1983, according to these government accounts. Four people were
executed in public on one occasion.
Later in
1983, Mr. Xi was promoted to party secretary and kept a firm hand on
social issues. Under his leadership the local government strictly
enforced the national one-child policy. According to internal government
documents, the county sterilized 31,000 women and fit another 30,000
with intrauterine contraceptive devices.
Like the
crime campaign, the family planning measures were part of a national
policy and there is no evidence that Mr. Xi was more zealous than
others. But it illustrates a truism for successful Chinese leaders —
that social issues have to be dealt with firmly to create political
space for market-opening economic
measures.
It was in economics as well as personal connections that Mr. Xi stood out.
Zhengding
was a grain-growing center, with peasants forced to grow huge amounts
for central granaries. Mr. Xi formed a clever alliance with Maoists and
used his family ties in Beijing to cut Zhengding’s grain quota by
one-quarter. That freed up farmers to use their land more lucratively,
such as for raising fish, geese or cattle.
Mr. Xi
caused even more of a stir in Zhengding when he tried to make it a
center of television filming. State television was filming the classic
novel “Dream of Red Mansions,” which is set in a palace and surrounding
grounds. Crews had already built an enormous replica of the park in
Beijing. But Mr. Xi used his political connections to get the mansion
built in Zhengding, meaning the cast had to travel six hours to
Zhengding to shoot indoor
scenes.
Despite local opposition, Mr. Xi pushed
through a plan to spend three times the original amount in a bid to make
the set permanent.
The story of building the
television studio is now firmly part of Mr. Xi’s official lore, touted
as an example of his visionary economic leadership. In justifying the
costs, he said it would help create a tourist attraction, and for many
years it was popular because the television series was a huge hit.
Several other shows were also filmed there in the 1980s and early 1990s.
But what is rarely mentioned is that the Rongguofu mansion now gets few
visitors and has not been used as a set for 20 years. It also spawned
two spinoffs in Zhengding that are bankrupt, with one torn down and the
other shuttered.
Despite his clout, and unlike the character in the novel “New Star,” Mr. Xi was not able to vanquish all his enemies.
He
was never promoted beyond county chief. He was blocked, local residents
and biographers say, by Mr. Gao, the provincial party secretary.
According to Hu Lili, one of the authors of a new biography published by
Mirror Books, Mr. Xi’s family decided that three years in Zhengding was
enough. In 1985 his father arranged to have him transferred to China’s
wealthier and more reform-minded coast, where he served under a more
sympathetic party chief with ties to his father.
Yet
the time in Zhengding helped Mr. Xi hone his skills, setting a template
for his rise. It also cemented his bond with Liu Yuan, who is now a
senior leader in the People’s Liberation Army. He also made an ally in
Li Zhanshu, who was a local official in Hebei at the same time as Mr.
Xi. Mr. Li has now been tapped to take over the party’s nerve center,
its General Office.
“You
can’t separate his accomplishments from his political
support,” said Yang Zhongmei, a Xi biographer and lecturer at Yokohama
City University. “This is the model you see today: if you have enough
political support and money, you can accomplish a lot.”
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