ON XI JINPING

A disturbing study of the mentality of China’s leader, who has no doubts about his country’s ascension and his own role in it.

Rudd is a former Australian prime minister and president of the Asia Society, and he currently serves as the Australian ambassador to the U.S. He is also a veteran China-watcher, as he demonstrated in his 2022 book The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict Between the US and Xi Jinping's China. In this book, the author focuses on the underlying reasons that frame Xi’s ideology. Xi has recently moved firmly to the Leninist left on domestic policies, exerting greater control over the private sector and consolidating surveillance methods. In foreign policy, he blends China’s imperial history with Marxist ideas of the inevitable victory of socialism. In the middle section of the book, which Rudd admits can be heavy going, the author examines the many speeches, books, and articles on Xi for signals and clues. Xi believes that the collapse of the West in general, and the U.S. in particular, is in sight, and China will then take its rightful place as the world’s leader. Xi’s ideology involves a bits-and-pieces approach, but he believes that the elements fit together without contradiction. He is likely to stay in office for another decade, at least, and his eventual successor will likely follow in his footsteps. Rudd provides huge amounts of detail on Xi and current affairs in China, which gives the book an authoritative tone but sometimes makes it hard to follow. Nevertheless, there is great value in understanding how your opponents—or enemies—think, and policymakers in Washington, D.C., should pay attention to Rudd’s prodigious research.

The author effectively unravels the thinking of Xi, finding him to be part emperor and part revolutionary socialist.