Xi Jinping (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus the paramount leader of China, since 2012. Since 2013, Xi has also served as the president of China. As a member of the fifth generation of Chinese leadership, Xi is the first CCP general secretary born after the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The son of Chinese communist veteran Xi Zhongxun, Xi was exiled to rural Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province, as a teenager following his father's purge during the Cultural Revolution. He lived in a yaodong in the village of Liangjiahe, where he joined the CCP after several failed attempts and worked as the local party secretary. After studying chemical engineering at Tsinghua University as a worker-peasant-soldier student, Xi rose through the ranks politically in China's coastal provinces. Xi was governor of Fujian from 1999 to 2002, before becoming governor and party secretary of neighboring Zhejiang from 2002 to 2007. Following the dismissal of the party secretary of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, Xi was transferred to replace him for a brief period in 2007. He subsequently joined the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) of the CCP the same year and was the first-ranking secretary of the Central Secretariat in October 2007. In 2008, he was designated as Hu Jintao's presumed successor as paramount leader. Towards this end, Xi was appointed the vice president and vice chairman of the CMC. He officially received the title of leadership core from the CCP in 2016.

While overseeing China's domestic policy, Xi has introduced far-ranging measures to enforce party discipline and strengthen internal unity. His anti-corruption campaign led to the downfall of prominent incumbent and retired CCP officials, including former PSC member Zhou Yongkang. For the sake of promoting "common prosperity", Xi has enacted a series of policies designed to increase equality, overseen targeted poverty alleviation programs, and directed a broad crackdown in 2021 against the tech and tutoring sectors. Furthermore, he has expanded support for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), emphasized advanced manufacturing and tech development, advanced military-civil fusion, and attempted to reform China's property sector. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, he initially presided over a zero-COVID policy from January 2020 to December 2022 before ultimately shifting towards a mitigation strategy after COVID-19 protests occurred in China. Xi has pursued a more aggressive foreign policy particularly with regards to China's relations with the United States, the nine-dash line in the South China Sea, and the Sino-Indian border dispute. Additionally, for the sake of advancing Chinese economic interests abroad, Xi has sought to expand China's influence in Africa and Eurasia by championing the Belt and Road Initiative. Xi presided over a deterioration in relations between Beijing and Taipei under Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, successor of Ma Ying-jeou whom Xi met in 2015. In 2020, Xi oversaw the passage of a national security law in Hong Kong, which clamped down on political opposition in the city, especially pro-democracy activists.

Since coming to power, Xi's tenure has witnessed a significant increase in censorship and mass surveillance, a deterioration in human rights (including the persecution of Uyghurs), the rise of a cult of personality, and the removal of term limits for the presidency in 2018. Xi's political ideas and principles, known as Xi Jinping Thought, have been incorporated into the party and national constitutions. As the central figure of the fifth generation of leadership of the PRC, Xi has centralized institutional power by taking on multiple positions, including new CCP committees on national security, economic and social reforms, military restructuring and modernization, and the internet. In October 2022, Xi secured a third term as CCP General Secretary, and was re-elected state president for an unprecedented third term in March 2023.

Xi Jinping was born on 15 June 1953 in Beijing, the third child of Xi Zhongxun and his second wife Qi Xin. After the founding of the PRC in 1949, Xi's father held a series of posts, including the chief of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, vice-premier, and vice chairperson of the National People's Congress. Xi has two older sisters, Qi Qiaoqiao (齐桥桥), born in 1949 and Qi An'an (齐安安), born in 1952. Xi's father was from Fuping County, Shaanxi.

Xi went to Beijing Bayi School, and then Beijing No. 25 School, in the 1960s. He became friends with Liu He, who attended Beijing No. 101 School in the same district, and who later became China's vice premier and a close advisor to Xi after he became China's paramount leader. In 1963, when Xi was ten years old, his father was purged from the CCP and sent to work in a factory in Luoyang, Henan. In May 1966, the Cultural Revolution cut short Xi's secondary education when all secondary classes were halted for students to criticise and fight their teachers. Student militants ransacked the Xi family home. Also during the Cultural Revolution, Xi's sister Heping hanged herself at her military academy.

Later, his mother was forced to publicly denounce his father, as he was paraded before a crowd as an enemy of the revolution. His father was later imprisoned in 1968 when Xi was aged 15. In 1968, Xi submitted an application to the Bayi School's Reform Committee and insisted on leaving Beijing for the countryside. On 13 January 1969, they left Beijing and arrived in Liangjiahe Village, Yan'an, Shaanxi, alongside CCP Chairman Mao Zedong's Down to the Countryside Movement. The rural areas of Yan'an were very backward, which created a big gap for Xi as a teenager. He once recalled that he had to overcome "five hurdles" (flea, food, life, labor and thought hurdle), and the experience led him to feel affinity with the rural poor. After a few months, unable to stand rural life, he ran away to Beijing. He was arrested during a crackdown on deserters from the countryside and sent to a work camp to dig ditches. He later returned to the village, under the persuasion of his aunt Qi Yun and uncle Wei Zhenwu. He worked as the party secretary of Liangjiahe, where he lived in a cave house.

He then spent a total of seven years in Yanchuan. In 1973, Yanchuan County assigned Xi Jinping to Zhaojiahe Village in Jiajianping Commune to lead social education efforts. Due to his effective work and strong rapport with the villagers, the community expressed a desire to keep him there. However, after Liangjiahe Village advocated for his return, Xi went back in July that same year. Liang Yuming (梁玉明) and Liang Youhua (梁有华), the village branch secretaries, supported his application to the Chinese Communist Party. Yet, due to his father, Xi Zhongxun, still facing political persecution, the application was initially blocked by higher authorities. Despite submitting ten applications, it wasn't until the new commune secretary, Bai Guangxing (白光兴), recognized Xi's capabilities that his application was forwarded to the CCP Yanchuan County Committee and approved in early 1974. Around that time, as Liangjiahe village underwent leadership changes, Xi was recommended to become the Party branch chairman of the Liangjiahe Brigade.