Beijing Forum: Exploring Xi Jinping's Pricey Legacy – The Impact of His Father's Struggles on China's Present Leader. A Journey of Ongoing Self-Reinvention.

Introduction

Xi Jinping’s rise to power and governing philosophy cannot be fully understood without examining the profound influence of his father, Xi Zhongxun, whose remarkable life embodied both the revolutionary fervor and tragic contradictions of the Chinese Communist Party. 

The elder Xi’s experiences—from his early revolutionary awakening to his persecution during the Cultural Revolution and eventual rehabilitation as a reformer—provide crucial insights into the ideological and personal forces that have shaped his son’s worldview and approach to leadership.

The Father’s Revolutionary Journey

Early Revolutionary Awakening

Xi Zhongxun’s path to revolutionary commitment began not with theoretical texts but through literature that spoke to his lived experience of hardship and injustice.

After his release from A Nationalist prisoner at age 15, Jiang Guangci’s novel The Young Wanderer reignited his revolutionary passion. 

The novel’s protagonist endures relentless suffering and concludes, “the more pain that evil society brought me, the more powerfully my resistance developed. "

This resonated deeply with Xi’s experiences of family tragedy and social upheaval.

This literary inspiration proved formative in Xi Zhongxun’s understanding of the power of cultural products in revolutionary politics. 

When he later became propaganda minister in 1952, he was tasked with educating hundreds of millions of Chinese about communist ideals and why they should sacrifice for the cause. 

His sensitivity to the role of culture and ideology in political mobilization would later influence his son’s approach to maintaining a revolutionary spirit through continuous ideological education.

The Dual Nature of Ideological Commitment

Xi Zhongxun’s career exemplified the paradoxical relationship between ideology and survival within the Communist Party system.

While ideological fervor motivated his revolutionary commitment and helped explain why the party deserved devotion, it also became the source of his most incredible suffering. 

The same ideological framework that sustained him through years of struggle would later be weaponized against him during the party’s internal purges.

The most devastating example occurred in 1962 when Xi Zhongxun was purged over the novel “Liu Zhidan”.

Mao Zedong concluded that Xi’s decision to allow a woman cadre to write this fictionalized account of a Northwestern revolutionary leader manifested “class struggle” and anti-party activity. 

This incident, which led to Xi’s 16-year exile from political life, demonstrated how ideological differences within the party were treated as heretical acts deserving of severe punishment.

The Iowa Revelation and Economic Reform

The Amana Colonies Experience

In 1980, Xi Zhongxun’s visit to the Amana Colonies in Iowa proved pivotal in his understanding of communal societies and their sustainability. 

As governor of Guangdong Province and leader of a delegation of Chinese provincial governors, Xi was at the forefront of China’s opening to Western business and investment

The Amana Colonies, founded on communitarian principles by German immigrants in 1855, presented a disturbing parallel to China’s communist experiment.

According to witnesses, Xi’s reaction to learning about the community’s dissolution after 88 years was profound—he “became a different guy” as he contemplated the implications. 

The sight of a communist society that had reduced itself to a tourist destination represented his deepest fears about the sustainability of China’s revolutionary project. 

This experience likely reinforced his belief that economic reform was essential to prevent the Communist Party from suffering a similar fate.

Pioneering Special Economic Zones

Xi Zhongxun’s role in establishing China’s first Special Economic Zones reflected his pragmatic approach to ideological adaptation.

As Party Secretary of Guangdong from 1978 to 1980, he was instrumental in creating these experimental areas designed to attract foreign investment while maintaining party control.

In April 1979, he had proposed to central leadership that Guangdong “take the lead” by carving out parts of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Shantou to implement independent policies encouraging investment from overseas Chinese, Hong Kong, Macao, and foreign businessmen.

The successful implementation of these zones, formally approved in August 1980, symbolized China’s new relationship with the outside world and provided a template for the country’s economic transformation. 

This pragmatic approach to reform—maintaining ideological commitment while adapting to economic realities—would profoundly influence his son’s later approach to governance.

The Cultural Revolution’s Lasting Impact

Persecution and Survival

The Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976) marked the darkest chapter in Xi Zhongxun’s life and left indelible scars on his family.

During these “ten years of chaos,” Xi was subjected to “struggle sessions,” physical abuse, and prolonged solitary confinement. 

The persecution extended far beyond his immediate family—according to recent research, some 20,000 people were persecuted as part of the “Xi Zhongxun anti-party clique,” with at least 200 being beaten to death, driven insane, or severely injured.

The trauma was so severe that Xi Zhongxun developed mental health problems and couldn’t bear to hear the word “implicated” for years after his rehabilitation. 

One of his daughters committed suicide during this period, adding personal tragedy to political persecution.

The young Xi Jinping, then a teenager, was among the nearly 30 million “sent-down youth” forced to work in the countryside for “re-education”.

The Formation of Xi Jinping’s Worldview

The suffering endured by both father and son during the Cultural Revolution fundamentally shaped Xi Jinping’s understanding of political power and survival. 

According to scholars who have studied his development, Xi Jinping emerged from this experience with what can be described as a “Hobbesian view of the world”—one in which the Party represents the only reliable instrument for maintaining order and achieving China’s greatness.

This traumatic period also reinforced Xi Jinping’s belief in sacrificing and suffering for the greater good.

His father reportedly viewed his son positively because Xi Jinping had “eaten more bitterness” than other children of his generation, even suggesting that his son had “the makings of a premier”.

This valorization of suffering as a path to political legitimacy would later influence Xi Jinping’s emphasis on revolutionary struggle and self-sacrifice in his leadership philosophy.

The Mission of Breaking Historical Cycles

Confronting the Dynastic Cycle

Xi Jinping’s most ambitious goal—breaking the cycles of dynastic collapse that have marked Chinese history for millennia—directly reflects his father’s struggles and the party’s existential fears.

Like Mao Zedong before him, Xi Jinping is acutely aware of the concept of the dynastic cycle, which posits that no dynasty in Chinese history has escaped the vicious cycle of rise and fall.

This preoccupation with historical cycles stems from a famous 1945 conversation between Mao Zedong and educator Huang Yanpei, who observed that throughout Chinese history, individuals, families, groups, and even countries had been unable to escape the pattern of “rapid rise and rapid fall”.

Mao’s response—that democracy and popular oversight would provide the solution—proved inadequate, as the Communist Party itself fell into patterns of corruption, autocracy, and succession crises.

Self-Revolution as the Answer

Xi Jinping’s concept of “self-revolution” represents his attempt to provide what he calls “the second answer” to escaping historical cycles.

First introduced in 2015 and elevated to ideological prominence by 2021, self-revolution aims to keep the revolutionary spirit alive through continuous internal purification and ideological education.

This doctrine calls for the party to “dare to turn the blade inward” and engage in painful self-examination and reform to maintain its “purity” and “eternal youth”.

The concept is explicitly linked to studying the lives of the founding generation, reflecting Xi Jinping’s belief that understanding and emulating the sacrifices of early revolutionaries like his father can provide a template for perpetual renewal.

The Ideological Foundation

Xi Jinping’s emphasis on continuous revolution draws from Maoist theory and his father’s experiences.

The concept resembles Mao’s “Continuous Revolution Theory,” which argued that societal contradictions would persist indefinitely, requiring perpetual revolutionary vigilance.

However, Xi’s version focuses more on internal party discipline and ideological purity rather than the chaotic mass mobilization that characterized the Cultural Revolution.

The campaign represents Xi’s attempt to institutionalize the lessons learned from his father’s career—that ideology can be both a source of strength and vulnerability, and that the party must continuously adapt while maintaining its core revolutionary identity.

Contemporary Implications and Challenges

The Weight of Historical Consciousness

Xi Jinping’s governance style reflects the profound influence of his father’s experiences with both the creative and destructive potential of ideological commitment. 

His approach to issues such as Tibet, Xinjiang, and Taiwan policy is shaped by his father’s deep involvement in United Front work and ethnic policy, which makes these matters of “personal unfinished business.”

The emphasis on ideological education, anti-corruption campaigns, and centralized control reflects lessons drawn from Xi Zhongxun’s career, particularly the need to maintain party unity and prevent the kind of ideological fragmentation that led to the Cultural Revolution’s excesses.

The Paradox of Reform and Control

Like his father, Xi Jinping faces the fundamental tension between maintaining revolutionary ideals and adapting to practical realities.

However, unlike Xi Zhongxun’s approach during the reform era, the younger Xi strengthened party control and ideological orthodoxy rather than pursuing further liberalization.

This divergence from his father’s reformist legacy has puzzled many observers. Still, scholars suggest it reflects Xi Jinping’s conclusion that the party’s survival requires stronger centralized control rather than continued opening. 

The “costly inheritance” of his father’s travails has led not to liberalization but to a more sophisticated form of authoritarian governance that combines ideological purity with technological efficiency.

The ultimate test of Xi Jinping’s approach will be whether his vision of continuous self-revolution can break the historical cycles that have plagued Chinese governance for millennia or merely represent another iteration of the same underlying patterns his father witnessed and struggled against throughout his remarkable life.