2min chapter

How to become a dictator cover image

1: Live in a cave

How to become a dictator

CHAPTER

How Much of a Black Box Chinese Politics Is

Xi Jinping is the first leader from a new generation to be born after Communist Party founded People's Republic of China. In his absence, rumors swirl about what's going on; no one has ever uncovered the truth. Steve Sang: Can you really get close to someone like him? It was truly an enjoyable time.

00:00
Speaker 1
Look
Speaker 5
in the face.
Speaker 1
Look at Xi. Can you really get close to someone like him? It's not
Speaker 5
fake. It's not foreign. It was truly an enjoyable time.
Speaker 1
The visit was more about signaling to Chinese people back home than anything else. And it worked. A decade later, Chinese tourists still drive right up to Kimberly Farm, snapping pictures of the place. That summer of 2012, after Xi returns from Iowa, the path to power seems clear. At 59, he's a leader from a new generation, the first to be born after the Communist Party founded the People's Republic of China. We chatter upbeat about the change he might bring. Then, as he is poised to become number one, he disappears.
Speaker 10
So where is the next president of China?
Speaker 1
In his absence, rumors swirl about what's going
Speaker 9
on. Reports range from an exercising injury, a car accident, perhaps something more political that the Chinese Communist Party no longer supports him.
Speaker 3
Diplomats say they've been told the 59-year-old injured his back while swimming or in a soccer field.
Speaker 10
Today that those rumors seem improbable, he thinks his mysterious absence is yet another sign of the instability in
Speaker 1
China. Then just a suddenly, he reappears.
Speaker 7
As if nothing
Speaker 1
happened, the Communist Party gathers his plans. And at the end of that meeting, in November
Speaker 9
2012, he's made a leader of China.
Speaker 1
And ten years on, no one has ever uncovered the truth. That's how much of a black box Chinese politics is. Steve Sang explains.

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