Sreena's Reviews > Xi: A Study in Power

Like many, I’m fascinated by Xi Jinping’s almost unprecedented rise. I was particularly interested in how the book would explain his dramatic life arc the "sine wave"(as I would like to view it) of going from a privileged "princeling" (the son of a high-ranking officia) to a hard laborer in the countryside, and then back up to the supreme leader of China.
His Initial life:
While all the other ambitious guys were in Beijing elbowing each other for the top spot, you know like sharks fighting over a single sardin, Xi was busy practicing the art of being boring.
He spent decades patiently climbing the ladder out in the province, making sure his resume was sturdy, but never flashy. This quiet, nose-to-the-grindstone routine made him look utterly non-threatening. The older party leaders thought, "Great! This guy’s so dull, he'll be the perfect puppet! We can finally put our feet up."
They picked him in 2012, convinced they had chosen the least exciting option. Turns out, the humble bureaucrat was actually a political chess grandmaster who'd just spent thirty years setting a trap.

Where the book falls short for me is in its depth. Given how much of a political enigma Xi remains, I felt the book could have done more research in certain points to try and peel back the layers of the official party narrative. Because Xi gives no interviews and his inner life is so obscured, the book often feels like it's analyzing the function of the Party’s top leader, rather than the man himself.