From one of the most admired reporters covering China today a vital new account of the life
and political vision of Xi Jinping the authoritarian leader of the People's Republic whose
hard-edged tactics have set the rising superpower on a collision with Western liberal
democracies. Party of One shatters the many myths that shroud one of the world's most secretive
political organizations and its leader. Many observers misread Xi during his early years in
power projecting their own hopes that he would steer China toward more political openness
rule of law and pro-market economics. Having masked his beliefs while climbing the party
hierarchy Xi has centralized decision-making powers encouraged a cult of personality around
himself and moved toward indefinite rule by scrapping presidential term limits-stirring fears
of a return to a Mao-style dictatorship. Today the party of Xi favors political zeal over
technical expertise trumpets its faith in Marxism and proclaims its reach into every corner
of Chinese society with Xi portraits and hammer-and-sickle logos. Under Xi China has
challenged Western preeminence in global affairs and cast its authoritarian system as a model
of governance worthy of international emulation. As a China reporter for The Wall Street
Journal Chun Han Wong has chronicled Xi Jinping's hard-line strategy for crushing dissent
against his strongman rule his political repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang and his
increasingly coercive efforts to reel in the island democracy of Taiwan as well as the
domestic and diplomatic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. When the Chinese government refused
to renew Wong's press credentials and forced him to leave mainland China in 2019 he moved to
Hong Kong to continue covering Chinese politics and its autocratic turn under Xi. Now Wong has
drawn on his years of firsthand reporting across China-including conversations with party
insiders insights from scholars and diplomats and analyses of official speeches and
documents-to create a lucid and historically rooted account of China's leader and how he
inspires fear and fervor in his party his nation and beyond. A penetrating and timely
unraveling of the personality and impact of a strongman president (Kirkus Reviews starred
review) Party of One explains how the future Xi imagines for China will reshape the future of
the entire world.
