Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to meet today with the Vice President of the People' Republic of China, Xi Jinping. This is the first visit to Russia by the Chinese leader, who is to take over at the helm of the ruling party and the country in 2012-2013. Alexander Gabuyev sizes up the future Chinese leader.
During the meeting today, both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will wear two hats at once. As the Russian prime minister's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Kommersant, "they will have a general discussion about the interaction between the two states as well as cooperation between the governing parties." In other words, Putin will simultaneously act as the prime minister and the head of United Russia and Xi will act as vice president of the PRC and a standing member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee. No documents are expected to be signed after the talks, Peskov said. However, the meeting and the Russian visit by 56 year-old Xi Jinping are assured a place in history books: for the first time Russia will host the man who will almost certainly be the head of the Celestial Kingdom in 2012-2022, when China's role in the world is likely to change dramatically.
Xi's star rose in October 2007 when the 17th Congress of the CPC elected him as standing member of the Politburo and put him at the helm of the Central Party School, the factory that produces Chinese leaders. In March 2008 he was appointed vice president of the PRC. By becoming Hu Jintao's deputy in the party and state, Xi automatically became the leading candidate for key posts which Hu will start vacating after the next party congress in 2012. According to CPC tradition, the successor to the top leader is named several years before the actual change of watch takes place. During the preparatory period he learns the ropes of running the huge country of 1.3 billion people, which guarantees that China gets a competent leader and that the transition of power is smooth.
Among the numerous ruling clans in China, Xi Jinping is a member of the group of the "PLA princes", i.e. the children of the top bureaucrats. His father, Xi Zhongxun (1913-2000,) was a hero of the Civil War in China and deputy prime minister. However, Xi owes his career not only to his influential father. During the Cultural Revolution Xi Sr. fell in disgrace, was put behind bars and only regained his position at the Politburo in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping. While his father was in exile, the younger Xi was sent to the countryside for "re-education by labour." He was back in Beijing in the 1970s, and in 1979 graduated from Tsinghua University with a degree in chemistry. The university is also the alma mater of Hu Jintao.
In the 1980-1990s Xi worked his way up through the party ranks and by 2000 was the governor of the maritime province of Fujian just across a narrow strait from Taiwan. He established good links with Taiwan's businesspeople and attracted huge investments, an achievement that was noticed in Beijing. In 2002, Xi became the party secretary of the rich province of Zhejiang, where he earned the reputation of a fighter against corruption. In March 2007 he was appointed party secretary in Shanghai, before being elected to the Politburo six months later. Since then, he has built up a reputation of a good manager and earned the respect of the majority of his fellow citizens. Only a couple of years ago the Chinese who knew him at all knew him as the husband of singer Peng Liyuan, whose status in the Chinese music scene is comparable to that of Alla Pugacheva in Russia (she is a member of the Chinese Army Song and Dance Ensemble and has the rank of Major General.) Things began to change when Xi was put in charge of organising the 2008 Olympics. At the end of 2007 many doubted whether the Olympic facilities would be built on time because of rampant corruption in the construction projects. But the young vice president put things right and sacked the corrupt sports officials. The result is well known: in August 2008 China won the Olympic Games with flying colours for the first time. Xi Jinping then addressed the issue that torments millions of his fellow countrymen: why, with its huge population, China has still not managed to put together a team of 11 football players capable of winning at least some prizes. Himself a keen football fan, the vice president began by eradicating corruption in China's Premier League. Considering the daunting scale of the problem, he will not see the results of the project before he becomes the country's supreme leader.
In contrast, Xi can already boast some achievements in foreign policy. The foreign leaders who have met him were deeply impressed: "He is a man of the calibre of Nelson Mandela," said Singapore's Minister-Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. "He has immense emotional stability and does not allow personal setbacks to influence his decisions." The former US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, was more terse in his description of the vice president: "He is a guy who knows how to achieve his goals." Russian officials have already found it out to their cost. Xi is in charge of relations with Mongolia, whose authorities last year decided to supply coal and metals to China and not to Russia, as Moscow was hoping.
Xi is known as a champion of the market economy and is thought to be one of the ideologists of political reform in the PRC. Many were stunned by a speech he delivered at the start of the academic year at the Central Party School last year, when he proclaimed the need to change the one-party regime in China. Incidentally, today he will share his views on these matters at the meeting between CPC and United Russia and then in the meeting with the Russian prime minister. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping may have a chance to continue their dialogue after 2012 in the capacity of heads of state, that is, if Putin decides to run for president in the next election in Russia.
Alexander Gabuyev