Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China's Superpower Future

Summary

From one of the most admired reporters covering China today, a vital new account of the life and political vision of Xi Jinping, the authoritarian leader of the People’s Republic whose hard-edged tactics have set the rising superpower on a collision with Western liberal democracies.

Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China’s Superpower Future shatters the many myths and caricatures that shroud one of the world’s most secretive political organizations and its leader. When the Chinese government refused to renew Wall Street Journal reporter Chun Han Wong’s press credentials and forced him to leave mainland China in 2019, he moved to Hong Kong where he continues to cover Chinese politics and its autocratic turn under Xi Jinping. Wong has chronicled Xi’s hardline strategy for crushing dissent against his strongman rule, his political repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, his increasingly coercive efforts to reel in the island democracy of Taiwan, as well as the domestic and diplomatic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, Wong has drawn on his years of first-hand reporting across China—including conversations with Party insiders and grassroots members, insights from scholars and diplomats, as well as analyses of official speeches and documents—to create a broad, lucid account of China’s leader, and how he inspires fear and fervor in his Party, his nation, and beyond.

Many observers misread Xi during his early years in power, projecting their own hopes that he would steer China toward more political openness, rule of law, and pro-market economics. Having masked his beliefs while scaling the Party hierarchy, Xi now expounds his authoritarian vision with unflinching resolve. He has centralized decision-making powers, encouraged a personality cult around himself, and cleared a path toward indefinite rule by scrapping presidential term limits—stirring fears of a return to Mao-style dictatorship. Today, the Party of Xi celebrates its leader with ardor unseen since the days of Mao. It favors political zeal over technical expertise, trumpets its faith in Marxism, and proclaims its reach into every corner of Chinese society with Xi portraits and hammer-and-sickle logos. Under Xi, China has challenged Western preeminence in global affairs and cast its authoritarian system as a model of governance worthy of international emulation.

Timely, revelatory, and important, Party of One explains how the future Xi imagines for China will reshape the future of the entire world.