From Last Place to Heir: How Jiang’s Faction Accidentally Created a Monster | Digging into China

From Last Place to Heir: How Jiang’s Faction Accidentally Created a Monster | Digging into China

Xi Jinping didn’t just rise—he systematically cleaned out the Party from top to bottom. The real question is who elevated him in the first place. His path hinged on three turning points. First, in the early 1980s, his father Xi Zhongxun helped get him onto the elite Third Echelon list of young cadres, launching a series of rapid promotions despite limited credentials. Second, during the massive 1999 Yuanhua smuggling scandal in Fujian, Xi stayed clean while others fell, catching the eye of Jiang Zemin’s strategist Zeng Qinghong, who engineered his leap to Zhejiang and the Central Committee. Third, after Shanghai boss Chen Liangyu’s 2006 downfall, Jiang’s faction blocked frontrunner Li Keqiang and chose the low-key Xi over flashy rival Bo Xilai. Zeng pushed him into Shanghai, fixed the 2007 vote, and even retired to seal the deal. The irony? Both Jiang’s camp and Hu Jintao’s Youth League were later purged. Only Xi’s faction remains.

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