the birth of xi jinping--2/25/25

25 Feb 2025

the birth of xi jinping--2/25/25

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Today's selection--from The Red Emperor by Michael Sheridan. China’s iron-fisted ruler Xi Jinping came into the world in 1953:

“Xi Jinping was born in the afterglow of the Chinese revolution. On the day of his birth, 15 June 1953, red banners flew over Beijing, the capital of the emperors. Tall buildings rose on the ruins of courtyard mansions. Rivers of cyclists flowed along wide roads to ministries and factories. The Communists ruled from pavilions where poets once flirted with concubines. They called their state 'New China'.

“Yet Xi would also live through revolutionary times. He grew up during an outbreak of chaos when the party turned on itself. He matured just as China opened the doors of reform. He saw the defeat of liberal ideas and was loyal to the dictatorship. Its victory was a win for him. Later, he established his own one-man cult. It, too, was a break with the past.

“There are few photographs of Xi as a child. He was the son of Communist cadres, members of the party apparatus trained to govern. They lived in guarded privilege, sealed off by a wall of party discipline and secrecy. Nobody talked outside its confines. The personal mattered little; the political counted for all. This was the way he would live his life.

“To be born in China in the mid-twentieth century was to be part of the most gigantic experiment in human behaviour in recorded history. In later life Xi made much of the lineage of his state, 'a civilization spanning almost 5,000 years' with 'a myriad of glories'. On the day of his birth, it seemed to lie shattered in shards.

“The Chinese empire fell apart in the nineteenth century. Its last dynasty was drawn from the warrior Manchu race, alien to most of the Chinese, who belonged to the Han ethnic group. The dynasty lost the 'mandate of heaven' in a welter of foreign defeats and internal revolts. Millions perished. Reforms failed. The last emperor abdicated in 1912 and a republic was set up. It, too, descended into strife.

In 1921, a group of revolutionaries founded the Communist Party to bring the spirit of Bolshevik Russia to a second vast impoverished land. A civil war broke out between the Communists and the old forces of landed property and wealth. Then Japan invaded China, creating a common foe, but the civil war resumed after the defeat of the Japanese. The Communists won and their foes, who were known as the Nationalists or the Kuomintang, fled into exile on the island of Taiwan. In 1949, Mao Zedong led the Red Army into Beijing and founded a 'people's republic'. One of his right-hand men was the hardened cadre Xi Zhongxun.

Xi Jinping with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on 28 September 2010

“The new rulers settled down within the walls built by their imperial predecessors. Xi Zhongxun and his family were allocated a home in the centre of the city. Memoirs and fiction record the sense of dislocation experienced by men and women who had known only the field campaign, forced marches and billets in caves. Their family lives were rarely smooth. They wrestled with torment, drugs and nightmares. Yet children brought new life and the revolutionaries had many. Xi Zhongxun had seven from two marriages.

“His sixth child, Xi Jinping, arrived at a time when millions of Chinese saw hope and opportunity. Idealistic professionals came home to build the new country. One was Li Zhisui, a doctor, who returned from the United States and became personal physician to Mao, soon learning that 'a thick mist' veiled the lives of the leaders. Dr Li knew Xi Zhongxun well. As a veteran, Xi was trusted by Mao with secrets: rivalries, mental breakdowns and crises among their comrades. He seemed secure.

“The Communists did not ban all the old ways. The baby Jinping was born in the year of the Water Snake, whose characteristics were said to include a smart, gregarious but emotional personality. People born under this astrological sign were often likely to make it to the top, possessing the gift of being in the right place at the right time. The baby's lucky colour was yellow, the colour of royalty. His lucky numbers were zero and five. All these details were noted carefully within the family.

“Infants were swaddled and nurtured in the traditional manner. It was customary for new mothers to stay confined to bed for thirty days after giving birth. They were not to go outdoors for fear of colds and infections. They could not even brush their teeth or bathe, but were wiped down with washcloths. The practice was mentioned in the Book of Changes, or I-ching, which was two thousand years old. It was known as 'sitting the month' or zuo yuezi.

“Xi's mother was called Qi Xin. She was a healthy woman in her late twenties at the time of his birth. The family had servants, so she had only to ask for dishes said to promote maternal wellbeing, like a broth of pork trotters and pea nuts, or an oily carp soup, which was held to stimulate breastmilk production. New mothers kept a strict diet to help restore their bodily yin and yang. They did not eat raw vegetables or fruit and did not drink coffee or cold water. Only hot or lukewarm water was allowed.

“The baby was kept under a strict regime. This discouraged too much cuddling. The mother held her child in her arms to feed but her elders encouraged her to let it alone in its cradle. Doctors said that a newborn's joints were delicate. They advocated massaging the limbs. In general, they did not believe in making the child too dependent. Infant and mother would be separated and might sleep apart, with vigilant in-laws ready to soothe a crying child.

“The thirtieth day of life marked gift-giving and celebration. Good Communists did not practise Taoist sacrifices to the gods but some things were unchanging. Indulgent relatives would give boys an uneven number of red-painted eggs, each symbolizing auspicious harmony, as well as ginger and money in red envelopes. There was a deep unspoken understanding in the thirty-day regimen and the festive end to it, one rooted in millennia of hard reality. It meant that mother and child had survived."