Short answers, pulled from the story.
Xi Jinping was born on the 15th of June 1953 in Beijing. He is the son of Xi Zhongxun, a Communist Party revolutionary, and his second wife Qi Xin. As a teenager he was sent to Liangjiahe Village in Shaanxi during the Cultural Revolution, where he lived for seven years in a yaodong, a type of cave house.
Xi rose through provincial posts in Fujian and Zhejiang before a brief stint as Shanghai party secretary in 2007. He joined the Politburo Standing Committee in October 2007 as its sixth-ranked member, was elected vice president in March 2008, and became general secretary and CMC chairman on the 15th of November 2012, then president on the 14th of March 2013.
Xi launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign after taking power in 2012, targeting both senior officials he called "tigers" and lower-level functionaries he called "flies." As of 2023, approximately 2.3 million government officials had been prosecuted. Prominent targets included former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang and former CMC vice chairmen Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong.
In March 2018, the first session of the 13th National People's Congress passed constitutional amendments removing term limits for the president and vice president. This allowed Xi to be re-elected without limit. Upon his re-election in 2023, he became the first Chinese president to serve more than two terms, and the first party leader since Mao Zedong to be chosen for a third term as general secretary.
Xi announced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. It is a global infrastructure and economic development project spanning much of Africa and Eurasia, described as the largest infrastructure investment by a great power since the Marshall Plan. The initiative became central to China's foreign policy under Xi.
China's official military budget more than doubled under Xi, reaching a record $282 billion in 2026. The People's Liberation Army was also restructured significantly, with the number of theater commands reduced from seven to five and new branches created, including the PLA Rocket Force and the Aerospace Force.