The world’s most powerful people in the year 2025

 Xi Jinping 

China's success proves that socialism is not dead. It is thriving. Just imagine this: had socialism failed in China, had our communist party collapsed like the party in the Soviet Union, then global socialism would lapse into a long dark age. And communism, like Karl Marx once said, would be a haunting spectre lingering in limbo.      — Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping is the world’s most powerful people in the year 2025. Xi has been the paramount leader of China, the most prominent political leader in the People's Republic of China, since 2012. He has been serving as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) since 2012, and President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013. By 2013, Xi was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party, Chair of the Military Commission and President of the People’s Republic of China. His name and philosophy was added to the party constitution in 2017, and the following year he successfully pushed for the abolition of presidential term limits. Although Xi earned criticism for human rights violations and disruptive economic regulations, but he continued the country's rise as a global superpower. 

Xi Jinping, the third child of Xi Zhongxun and his second wife Qi Xin, was born in Beijing on 15 June 1953. After the founding of the PRC in 1949, Xi's father held a series of posts, including the chief of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, vice-premier, and vice chairperson of the National People's Congress. Xi went to Beijing Bayi School in the 1960s. In 1963, when Xi was ten years old, his father was purged from the CCP and sent to work in a factory in Luoyang, Henan. In May 1966, the Cultural Revolution cut short Xi's secondary education when all secondary classes were halted for students to criticise and fight their teachers. Student militants ransacked the Xi family home and one of his sisters, Xi Heping, was persecuted to death. Later, his mother was forced to publicly denounce his father, as he was paraded before a crowd as an enemy of the revolution. His father was later imprisoned in 1968. 

In 1968, Xi left Beijing and arrived in Liangjiahe Village, Yan'an but he was unable to adjust there and left for Beijing. He was arrested during a crackdown on deserters from the countryside and sent to a work camp to dig ditches. In 1973, Yanchuan County assigned Xi Jinping to Zhaojiahe Village in Jiajianping Commune to lead social education efforts. Due to his effective work and strong rapport with the villagers, the community expressed a desire to keep him there. However, after Liangjiahe Village advocated for his return, Xi went back in July that same year. Liang Yuming and Liang Youhua, the village branch secretaries, supported his application to the Chinese Communist Party. Yet, due to his father, Xi Zhongxun, still facing political persecution, his application was initially blocked by higher authorities. Despite submitting ten applications, Xi's capabilities was recognised by the new commune secretary, Bai Guangxing, and his application was forwarded to the CCP Yanchuan County Committee and approved in early 1974. Xi was recommended to become the Party branch chairman of the Liangjiahe Brigade. After taking office, Xi led efforts to drill wells for water supply, establish iron industry cooperatives, reclaim land, plant flue-cured tobacco, and set up sales outlets to address the village's production and economic challenges.

In 1975, the CCP Yanchuan County Committee recommended Xi for admission in Tsinghua University wher he studied chemical engineering from 1975 to 1979. After graduating in April 1979, Xi was assigned to the General Office of the State Council and the General Office of the CPC Central Military Commission, where he served as one of three secretaries to Geng Biao— a member of the CPC Central Committee's, Political Bureau and Minister of Defense. Xi says that the ideas and qualities, which define him today were formed in his early cave life. “I’m forever a son of the yellow earth,” he likes to say. “I left my heart in Liangjiahe. Liangjiahe made me. “When I arrived at 15, I was anxious and confused. When I left at 22, my life goals were firm and I was filled with confidence.”

Xi was elevated to a series of higher positions within the party and government. By 1995 he had become the deputy provincial party secretary. He later became governor of Fujian province. In that post, his concerns included environmental conservation and cooperation with nearby Taiwan. As acting governor and party secretary in Zhejiang province, he focused on restructuring the province’s industrial infrastructure in order to promote sustainable development. In early 2007 Xi was promoted to party secretary of Shanghai after a financial scandal broke out among the city’s upper leadership.

In October 2007 Xi was selected as one of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the CCP’s Political Bureau (Politburo), the highest ruling body in the party. With that promotion, Xi was put on a short list of likely successors to Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CCP and president of China. Xi’s status became more assured when in March 2008 he was elected vice president of China. In that role he focused on conservation efforts and on improving international relations. In October 2010 Xi was named vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), a post that was generally considered a major stepping-stone to the presidency. In November 2012, during the CCP’s 18th Party Congress, Xi was again elected to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, which was reduced to seven members. At the same time, Xi succeeded Hu as general secretary of the party and as chairman of the CMC. Xi became president of China in March 2013.

Xi was elevated to a series of higher positions within the party and government. By 1995 he had become the deputy provincial party secretary. He later became governor of Fujian province. In that post, his concerns included environmental conservation and cooperation with nearby Taiwan. As acting governor and party secretary in Zhejiang province, he focused on restructuring the province’s industrial infrastructure in order to promote sustainable development. In early 2007 Xi was promoted to party secretary of Shanghai after a financial scandal broke out among the city’s upper leadership.

In October 2007 Xi was selected as one of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the CCP’s Political Bureau (Politburo), the highest ruling body in the party. With that promotion, Xi was put on a short list of likely successors to Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CCP and president of China. Xi’s status became more assured when in March 2008 he was elected vice president of China. In that role he focused on conservation efforts and on improving international relations. In October 2010 Xi was named vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), a post that was generally considered a major stepping-stone to the presidency. In November 2012, during the CCP’s 18th Party Congress, Xi was again elected to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, which was reduced to seven members. At the same time, Xi succeeded Hu as general secretary of the party and as chairman of the CMC. Xi became president of China in March 2013.

After becoming president, Xi’s first initiatives was a nationwide anti-corruption campaign that soon saw the removal of thousands of high and low officials. He also emphasized the importance of the rule of law, calling for adherence to the Chinese constitution and greater professionalization of the judiciary as a means of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. Under his leadership China was increasingly assertive in international affairs, insisting upon its claim of territorial sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea. Xi managed to consolidate power at a rapid pace during his first term as China’s president. The success of his anti-corruption campaign continued, with more than one million corrupt officials being punished by late 2017; the campaign also served to remove many of Xi’s political rivals, further bolstering his efforts to eliminate dissent and strengthen his grip on power. 

Xi’s power and influence were bolstered in 2021 when the CCP passed a historical resolution that reviewed the party’s “major achievements and historical experience” of the past 100 years and looked to future plans as well. It featured praise for Xi’s leadership for reducing poverty and curbing corruption. He was unanimously elected to a historic third term as general secretary of the CCP in in October 2022. On the same day, the party unveiled the 20th Politburo Standing Committee which consisted of six Xi loyalists. On March 10, 2023, Xi also secured an unprecedented third five-year term as president of China, a development that was widely expected after the Chinese constitution was amended in March 2018 to remove the two-term limit on the presidency.