The Xi family were reunited but Xi Jinping returned more devoted to the Chinese Communist Party than ever before. ( Reuters: Tingshu Wang)Ĭhairman Mao died in 1976, and by 1978 Xi Zhongxun was one of many in the old guard who were eventually swept back into power "I said, 'if I was staying, I would be crying, if I did not go, I don't even know if I would live or die here.'"Ī visitor holds his mobile phone near a screen showing Chinese President Xi Jinping during an exhibition on the fight against COVID-19 in 2020 at the Wuhan Parlor Convention Centre. "My family standing outside the car all said, 'how could you be laughing?'" Mr Xi has said. He claims he didn't cry on the train, filled with other children. Mr Xi was eventually sent with other young people who'd fallen out of favour to work on farms in Shaanxi. The experience that hardened him into a future leader The young Mr Xi was arrested the next day and sent to a juvenile detention facility. "Although interestingly, according to this friend of the family who tells the story, Xi Jinping understood his mother's behaviour, noting that if she was caught, she would be arrested and a brother and sister would have no-one to take care of them." "A night around that same time, Xi Jinping left his confinement at the Party school, when a guard was distracted, and went home and told his mother that he was hungry, but his mother didn't give him food, and in fact reported him," Dr Torigian said. This was the kind of division that was sown between families and friends during the Cultural Revolution. ( Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images) Mao, who was in his 70s, had become wary of political rivals from his own generation, and to consolidate his power he unleashed a wave of discontent from the younger generation.Ĭhinese red guards during the Cultural Revolution in 1966. As a boy, Xi Jinping was denouncedįour years after Xi Zhongxun was purged, Chairman Mao triggered the terrifying Cultural Revolution. He had once been one of the most powerful men in China, but Xi Zhongxun now found himself at the bottom of China's social hierarchy, as Chairman Mao empowered the youth of the country to weed out the old guard, of whom Mao had become suspicious.įor a young Xi Jinping, it was also a stunning turn in fortunes. ( Wikipedia Commons: People's Daily)Įventually, he was given a small reprieve and given a job as a deputy manager of a tractor factory, before being kidnapped and sent to Xi'an during the Cultural Revolution.
This family photo was taken in 1958, before the Cultural Revolution changed things in the late 1960s. Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, younger brother Xi Yuanping, middle, and father Xi Zhongxun, right.