Gueorguiev Quoted in Politico Article on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Rise to Power

October 22, 2022

Politico

Dimitar Gueorguiev

Political Science Department

East Asia Program

South Asia Center

China

Government

International Affairs

Politico

Dimitar Gueorguiev

Xi Jinping will most likely ascend to a third term as China’s paramount leader at this week’s 20th Party Congress. But it has been anything but pre-ordained. Xi has harnessed a masterful combination of strategic planning and an uncanny aptitude to lead allies and enemies alike to underestimate his ambition to pave a path to becoming the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

Xi began climbing the rungs of the CCP power structure in the late 1970s and his tenure in the positions he held then was undistinguished. Rather than undertaking any significant initiatives, Xi’s record suggests he laid low and focused on avoiding both scandal and offending any potential CCP power brokers.

“He always kind of played the background, gave credit to the people around him and never really took credit for himself,” says Dimitar Gueorguiev, associate professor of political science.

Read more in the Politico article, "Xi Jinping’s path to power: From outcast to ‘emperor’."