During the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party purged Xi Jinping’s father and subjected him to 16 years of persecution and imprisonment—so how did the current president of China emerge more devoted to the party than ever? “It’s like a comic book villain origin story,” says Aaron MacLean. Today, Joseph Torigian, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, joins School of War to explore the strange and dark story of China’s current president, the brutality of Mao’s China, and how it all shaped the power dynamics in Beijing today.
03:24 – The Xi Family and Communist Loyalty
08:14 – Why Xi Jinping Never Abandoned the Party
10:05 – China's Revolutionary Origins
13:23 – The Books That Shaped Xi Jinping
18:34 – Why China Embraced Communism
22:13 – Xi Zhongxun's Rise and Near-Execution
29:21 – Mao's Loyalty Test
35:30 – The Great Leap Forward and Famine
45:14 – Xi Jinping's Brutal Childhood
47:38 – His Father's 16 Years of Persecution
52:11 – Mao and the Cultural Revolution
59:17 – The Xi Family's Tragedy
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