Xi’s China, China’s Xi: Current Political and Social Challenges

President Xi Jinping’s ascent to the post of general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012 ushered in hopes of political reform. After all, Xi himself had experienced the CCP’s fickleness during the era of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, as he was banished to rural Shaanxi between 1969 and 1975 to experience living conditions on farms. [1] Even the CCP’s top echelons have expressed the need to unshackle the system; in 2014, then Vice President Li Yuanchao underscored the need for reform, given the CCP’s long stint in power. [2] However, since coming to power, Xi has only tightened the CCP’s hold on Chinese polity. [3]