Who is Xi Jinping, leader of world’s 2nd largest economy

Xi Jinping, 59, the next leader of a 5th of the world’s people is a Communist aristocrat with a pop star wife, but his views are a mystery, hidden behind Party secrecy and an enigmatic demeanor. Xi is set to take over a country that, in just a few decades, has gone from a famine-wracked basketcase to the world’s 2nd largest economy, and now has growing diplomatic heft and military reach, too. Xi will succeed President Hu Jintao as the general-secretary of the 82-million-strong Communist Party at its 18th congress, which starts on Thursday, November 8, in the Great Hall of the People on Beijing’s vast Tiananmen Square. The heir apparent has been number two to Hu since 2008, and his appointment to head the all-powerful party will make his promotion to president of the world’s most populous nation, expected in March, a mere formality.


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